





• ^ . • 



*-ri>* 



»• * 






-+f. v 



/:** 






***t 



**•* 



fl 



S* rafc* 




CHA2 



FACTS 

TENDING TO PROVE 

THAT 

GENERAL LEE, 

WAS NEVER ABSENT FROM THIS COUNTRY, 
FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME, 

DURING THE YEARS 

1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 

AND THAT 

HE WAS THE AUTHOR 

OP 

JUNIUS. 



BY THOMAS GIRDLESTONE, M. D. 

How many of every rank and profession are too indolent 
to search for information ; who judge by hearsay, and volun- 
tarily renounce the right of thinking for themselves. 




LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR P. MARTIN, 33, ORCHARD STREET, 
CORNER OF OXFORD STREET. 

Ibl3. 



HUNTED BY 3. BEART, YARMOUTH, 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The engraving which accompanies this 
publication is taken from a caricature 
drawing, by Barhatn Rushbrooke Esq. of 
West Stowe, near Bury. He was common- 
ly called Counsellor Ilushbrooke, from his 
having been bred to the law. He was con- 
sidered as a man of great taste in painting, 
and all the liberal arts. He has been dead 
above thirty years. His son Robert Rush- 
brooke is still living, and his grandson 
Robert Rushbrooke Esq. of Rushbrooke 
in Suff »lk, is married to one of the daugh- 
ters of Sir Charles Davers. 

General Lee's likeness was taken on his 
return from Poland, in his uniform as aid- 
de-camp to Stanislaus king < »f Poland. But 
though it was designed as a caricature, it 
is allowed, by all who knew General Lee, 



IV 

to be the only successful delineation either 
of his countenance or person. 

The fac simile No. 1 is of the letter of 
General Lee, which was written in 1 758 
while he was recovering from his wounds 
after the battle of Ticonderoga. 

No. 2 is a part of General Lee's h-tter 
of 1774, in order that the reader may 
compare the capital L in Laic and Lord 
Tiianet with my Lee in the fac simile No. 
41 which Mr. Woodfall has given of the 
writing of Junius. I make this reference 
because in the letter from America, Sir 
Charles Da vers had erased the signature 
of General Lee, probably before it was sent 
to Lord Thanet. The letter to General 
Lee's sister was without a signature, be- 
cause he had inclosed it with a letter to 
his mother. And the Utters of 1769, 1770, 
1772, which I had kept for more than 
two years, I have long since returned to 
the only remaining son of Sir Charles Da- 
vrrs, the Rev. Robert Davers of Bradiield 
near Bury, in Suffolk. In the letter of 
1769, Lee is s'gnea very much like the 



specimen which Mr. Woodfall has given 
of General Lee's writing in 1763. The 
letters of 1770 and 1772, contain the ca- 
pital L to the name of Lee in a smaller 
character, as in the fric simile No. 41 of 
Junius. And indeed I did not know that 
an artist could be found in this place, who 
is so able to make a fac simile from hand 
writing, till it was too late for me to apply 
once more to Mr. Davers for the loan of 
these letters, in order that an additional fac 
simile might be given from any part of 
them in the present publication. 

But Mr. Davers I make no doubt would 
have no hesitation in indulging any of his 
acquaintances, in his presence, with a com- 
parison of those letters with the hand-wri- 
ting of Junius. 

The hand-writing of General Lee is 
governed very much by the state of the 
pen, even in the same letter. , And a co - 
parison of his hand-writing in the letters 
of 1758, 1763, 1769, 1770, 177;, \77i, 
with the hand-writing of Junius would 
a % 



Vi 

prove, that the character of each letter 
is not in every respect the same, yet that 
each letter has a sufficient resemblance to the 
rest to make them all like Ovid's nymphs. 

" Facies non omnibus una, 
Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.' 5 

Whether by accident or design in the 
private letter No. 41 to Mr. Woodf 11 (see 
the fac simile No 41) my Lee was written 
instead of my Junius must be left to the 
consideration of those who may think it 
worth their while to read this little book 
from the begining to the end. 

But to do justice to the subject an accu- 
rate comparison of Mr. WoodfalPs Junius 
with the memoirs of General Lee is also 
necessary; and then the proofs will be found 
strong that General Lee could write as 
good a style as Junius. 

Lord Thanet and Sir Charles Davers, 

were the most confidential friends of 

General Lee. And among the number 

of his friends, prior to his departure for A- 

a erica, Were the Duke of Richmond, the 



Vll 



Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Camden, 
Lord Mulgrave, Lord Amherst, Sir George 
Saville, Mr. Burke, General Harvey, &c. 

I have no facts to prove (hat General 
Lee was acquainted with Mr. Grenville. 
And Junius himself in his 18th letter de- 
clares that " he has not the honour of being 
ft personally known to him" 

I am under great obligations to the Rev, 
Robert Davers for the liberty of copying 
from the letters of General Lee to Sir 
Charles Davers. 

And to the accidental conversation, in 
this place and neighbourhood, with Lord 
Suffield, Sir Charles Bunbury, and other 
persons of distinction, I am indebted for 
much of the information which I have 
been able to collect on this subject. 



Yarmouth, ) rp f\ 

1813. \ A. Vx, 



8K- 




> 









7fZ<r*m Mn j.f c . ^^mowt-fo 



F ACT S, 

$T. &>C. 



Having read, in 1803, in the St. James's 
Chronicle the testimony of Mr. Rodney rela- 
tive to the author of Junius, I was tempted 
to compare the posthumous publications of 
General Lee with the letters of Junius; and 
on reading Mr. Almon's edition of Junius I 
was induced to publish in 1807, " Reasons 
cc for rejecting the presumptive evidence of 
" Mr. Almon, that Mr. Hugh Boyd wax the 
" writer of Junius, with passages selected 
ft to prove the rial author of the letters of 
*'. Junius" 

Since that publication, through the remains 
of the family of Sir Charles Davers, I have 
become possessed of four of the private letters 
of General Lee to Sir Charles Davers, dated 
Dec. 24th 1769, May 14th 1770, March 26th 
1772, Sept. 20th 1774, all of which letters tend- 
ed, in the minds of many, to confirm my for* 
jpner belief in the real author of Junius. 



Among the persons, who had seen these let- 
ters was Lord Suflield, who from the following 
circumstances has had no small share in reviv- 
ing my thoughts on this subject. 

Mi. Woodfall, the son of the publisher of 
Junius, was advised by one of his friends to 
take some of the original letters of Junius to 
Westminster-Hall Among; those who there 
saw the letters was Sir Thomas Plomer; and 
he requested Mr Woodfall to accompany him 
the next right to the house of lords. In the 
presence of other noblemen who examined these 
letters was Lord Suffield, who was so much im- 
pressed with the similarity of the hand-writing 
to those letters of General Lee, that his lord- 
ship told Mr. Woodfall if he would call the 
next morning at his house, he thought he could 
give him some information relative to the wri- 
ter of those letters. And through his lordship, 
I am indebted for a correspondence with Mr. 
Woodfall, and have become much earlier ac- 
quainted than I otherwise should have been 
with the private letters of Junius. 

After an interchange of many letters with 
Mr. .-Woodfall, he was so civil as to pencil off 
some passages, from the fac simile of the pri^ 
^vate letters of Junius tolas father. Ihese 






letters «o much resembled those of General 
Lee, that I w;is ind cecl to send Mr Wood- 
fall the letter of General Lee, dated America 
1774. 

L>rd Suifield might well have concluded, 
that the letters of Junius and Lee w re writ- 
ten bv same person, since three of the four gen- 
tlemen who make it a part of their profession, 
in London, to decide on the identity of hand- 
writing, on the first view, were of opinion that 
the letters of Junius and Lee were written 
by the sane person. But upon a more mi- 
nute examination they discovered a material 
difference in the formation of some of the letters 
particularly in the capital letters. 

Since this examination took place, I have 
been favoured, through Sir Charles Biiubury, 
with a letter of General Lee to his sister Mrs. 
Sidney Lee, which letter was written in 1758, 
wherein all the capitals ad small letters are 
formed, rot as in the private letters to Sir 
Charles Davers, but as in the private letters 
ot Junius to Mr. Woodfall. This letter was 
written by General Lee to his sister, while he 
lay shot through the bod^ afk i r the battl of 
Ticonderoga, so that it is the woist hauu-wri- 

B 2 



ting of any of bis letters ; yet it betrays that 
freedom and rapidity of for ni ig his words, 
which are to be met with ia many of the pri- 
vate letters of Junius. 

Three and four words are made as if the pen 
had never been taken off till they were all finished. 

This peculiarity exists in several parts of 
General Lee's letter in 1758, and in spite of 
the artifice which Junius has employed in wri- 
ting his words more upright and neat, yet e- 
nough of the character of General Lees hand 
is to be traced to make a great resemblance. 

General Lee was a remarkably thin man, and 
is said to have had the smallest hand and the 
slenderest fingers that could be seen. This 
lightness of hand, and quickness of eye, which 
he equally possessed with his cousin Mr. Harry 
Bunbury, will account for his having been 
able to vary his hand under so small and beau- 
tiful a formatiou of letters. In the letter of 
17 8 there is a profusion of capital?, most of 
the nouns are so distinguished, and some of the 
words which he intended to be read emphati- 
cally. In all the rest of General Lee's letters, 
the sentence commoi ly begins with a small let- 
ter, except the nominative case should happen 
to be^iu ihe sentence. 



The nominative case and the names of per* 
sons or towns, are often the only capitals in the 
sentence. And instead of a full period, he, 
punctuates with k hyphen — In the public let- 
ters of Junius, the nouns are all distinguished 
by capitals, but in the private letters to Mr. 
Wood fall, the sentence frequently begins with 
a small letter, as in the private letters of Lee. 

In one of the letters of Junius to Mr. Wood- 
fall the pronoun I is written with a small letter. 

But as General Lee has always been consi- 
dered at a distance from this kingdom during 
the years 1767, 1768, 1760, 1770, 1771, and 
1772, the belief prevails, that he never could 
have written the letters of Junius. 

The letters to Sir Charles Davers and L.>rd 
Thanet, which were dated Vienna Dec. 24th 
1761), Florence May 14th 1770, Lyons 1772, 
were evidently written that these parties* to 
the secret of Junius, should be able to silence- 
all suspicion of Lee having been the writer of 

* The private letter of Junius to Mr. Wood'fall confesses that 
Junius had parties to his secret, in the following words — 
" The truth is, there are people about me, whom I 
w would wish not to contradict, and who had rather see 
m Junius in the papers ever so improperly than not at all. v 
S«e prWate letter No, 8. of Junius to Mr. WoodlaiL 



Junius, by Sir Chailes having it in his power 
to produce a letter to any of his friends, in or 
out of the hou«e of commons, and Lord Thanet 
to the house of lords : and bv these two members 
hiving from time to time to establish at 
Hoare'g the banker a credit for General Lee on 
the continent. Though these letters were true 
v ith respect to time, I am able to prove that 
three out of four of them were fictitious with 
regard to place. A person who is still living 
recollects perfectly well that Lee was a great 
deal with Sir Charles in the years 1768, 1769, 
1^70, in London during the winter season, 
while Sir Charles was attending his duty as a 
member of parliament ; and that on the return 
oi Sir Charles to Rushbrooke, in Suffolk, Ge- 
neral Lee was frequently with Sir Charles dur- 
ing the summer season of those years, till the 
}« ar 1772. This person perfectly recollects to 
have accompanied General Lee, Colonel Butler, 
a :;ii Sir Charles Davers to Rushbrooke church, 
a! out May 1770, as sponsors to his eldest son, 
Captain Charles Sydney Davers, who died cap- 
tain of the Active frigate; aiid that just as the 
baptism was finished, an ass came from the 
church-yard up to the font, which circum- 
stance occasioned Geiieiai Lee to make such 



ludicrous observations as could never be for- 
gotten by thnse who had bceu present. 

By the copy of the baptism of Charlrs Syd» 
ney Divers, taken by The Rev. W. Stocking 
the curate from the parish register, it appears 
that the baptism took place oil the 20th of 
April 1770. 

And in twenty-four days from this time 
ihere is a letter dated Florence, with an apo- 
logy to Sir Charles Da vers, for the length of 
time, which General Lee had suffered to pass 
away before he acknowledged the reception of 
the letter of Sir Charles. 

The person who was at the baptism declares 
that General Lee was moving irom and to Rusu- 
brooke the greatest part of that summer, that 
when at Rushbrooke, he was constantly Wiit* 
ing, with books and papers before him, and 
that he was a terrible nuisance to the cook, for 
he had chosen the kitchen for his place to 
write in, and that his night cap and dressing 
gown were only taken off a few minutes before 
the dinner was -ready to be sent upon the tabie. 

Here then is a decided proof that these let- 
ters were fictitious with respect to place 

And as Junius has acknowledged parties to 
liis secret, there are many reason* m {ioceeui^g 



8 

(h rough the private letters of Junius and Lee, 
to believe that both Sir Charles Davers and Lord 
Thanet were the parlies to the secret of Junius. 

General Lee having deviated from his usual 
formation of the alphabet ia the four private 
letters to Sir Charles Da vets, and Sir Charles 
having retained no other than (hose four letters 
of General Lee, and there not being any post 
mark on any of them all tend lo favour this 
opinion. 

Sir Charles Davers and Colonel Butler were 
bred up with General Lee, at the fiee grain* 
mer school of Bury St. Edmunds. Sir Charles 
served at the same time in America with Gene- 
ral Lee, and was shot through the neck in one- 
of the battles, if not in the same action in 
which General Lee was wounded. 

But in order to prove that General Lee cojld 
cot have been Junius, the dates of the letters 
from General Lee are cited from Langworthy's 
memoirs by Mr. Wood fall, to show that General 
Lee was certainly at Warsaw, when the firsts 
letter of Junius appeared. Yet had Mr. W ood- 
fall employed a little more of his time in read- 
ing that very book, he would have found all the 
letters to General Lee had better authority for 
their accuracy; for the original of each letter 



was intrusted with the elitor, d irin^ the pub- 
lication of Mr. L i ^worthy's memoirs. And 
on turning to Sir Thomas Wroughton's lei tor, 
the then ambassador of this co liitry at Warsaw, 
this letter, from which I cited a passage i i my 
former publication, proves that General Le e 
was in England in 17G7. The letter* of Sir 
Thomas Wroughtoa is dated Warsaw, 21itb 
April, 1767. 

If the accuracy of the date of this letter of 
Sir Ttiomas VVrougbnon, shoul i be doubted by 
anv person, he has only to turn to the article 
* Poland" in the Encyclopaedia B itaunica, or 
the Annual Register for i 7f> 7, and he will find, 
that the confederations of the dtssidents, which 
Sir Thomas noticed, took place on the 20th of 
March 1767, and the extraordinary diet, which 
he expected to be held in August, or Septem- 
ber, was held on the 5th October 1767. 

Here is then the testimony of Sir Thomas 
Wroughton the British ambassador at War- 
saw, to prove that General Lee Mas in Eng- 
land on the k9th of April, aud the day before 

* S*>e the whole of Sir Thomas Wroughton'8 letter ia 
th« Appendix. 



10 

Sir Thomas had acknowledged (he reception 
of General Lee's letter, a paper of Junius had 
appeared under the signature of Poplicola. 

But it is probable that the feelings of Ge- 
neral Lee were quickened to greater exertions 
by the confession in Sir Thomas Wroughton's 
letter, that the unguarded abuse of men and 
measures of General Lee, had created for him 
such enemies as would prevent his acquiring 
ay further rewards or honours in this coun- 
try. 

The next question to where was General 
Lee during the years 1767, !768, 1769, 1770, 
1771, 1772, is, who is Mr. Rodney to whom 
General Lee confessed that he was the writer of 
the letters of Junius? 

This information I have been able to obtain 
through very respectable persons, who all a- 
gree that Mr. Rodney is a man of character. 
In 1803, he was the attorney general for all 
the American republic; he is now one of the 
supreme judges, and his son is become the 
attorney general. 

It is not always in our power to reconcile 
the inconsistencies of those characters whose 
writings or actions have been minutely watch- 
ed; and it is impossible to enter into the mo- 



11 

lives of a person where we are not acquainted 
with all the particulars of his life. It is there- 
fore not very easy to say why General Lee should 
have written in 1768, a defence of Mr. Gren- 
ville,* unless it were that General Lee had been 
known to have been so violent an opposer of 

* The passages from the letter to the prince of Poland 
at Warsaw which Mr. Woodfall has quoted from Lee's 
memoirs, might have been continued to prove a different 
line of politics against Lee and Junius, with respect to the 
Duke of Grafton as well as against Mr. G. Grenville. 

" Some men of weight are embarked in it; but the heads 
* c are two odious to the na'ion in general in my opinion, to 
* 4 carry their point; such as Bedford, G. Grenville, and 
" with submission your friend Mansfield." u The Duke of 
■* Grafton is an absolute orator and has a fair character." 

Page 297 LeSs memoirs* 

How will this passage agree with some of the private 
letters of General Lee which I have shown Mr. Woodfall, 
and which are printed in the succeeding pages, wherein 
Lee sa ; s to Sir C. Davers — - ; The Duke your quondam 
46 friend is really a noble youth ; the qualities of Sifunus, 
" Tigellinus, Enpsou and D idley, see-n all to be untied 
" in his grace at an age when most men are troubled with 
u some of those ridiculed qualms called conscience , honour^ 
" or at least decor wn. If the axe is not applied to his 
u neck , it is laid to the root of our liberties, national ho m 
" nour and importance — there is no medium — for my own 
u part I will, to speak impudently after Brutus, resign 

* all things of Ro.ne, and seek out some s/ot ubi liber 

* ero, ubi libertas arii } ibi mihi Roma erit #u" 



12 

government, and the stamp act in particular, 
tint he thought it necessary to mislead JV?r. 
Wood fall by remDvi. >g irom his mind any idea 
that General Lee was his correspondent. Indeed 
the whole tenor of the private letters of Juni- 
us to Mr. Woodfall was to impress on his mind 
that, Junius was a man of the highest rank, 
fortune, and parliamentary interest. 

But Junius in one of his public letters ha? 
confessed that his was not simply a fictitious 
name, but a fictitious chararter. " But he 
" (Mr. Home) asserts, that he has traced me 
<( through a variety of signatures. To make 
" the discovery of any importance to his pir- 
" pose, he should have proved either that the 
" fictitious character* of Junius has not been 
" consistently supported, or that the author 



* And what is the Tetter signed " ^cotus " but an ex- 
ellent d* fence against national abuse, in order to bring 
down the indignation of a whole country upon Lord Bar. 
rington? Now it is kuown that Junius wrote the letter 
signed " Scotus." Why could he not have written wifh 
equal sincerity in defence of Mr. G Grenvilie as a defence 
of the Scotch ? if Junius himself had no friendship for 
Mr. G. Gren*ille, the par'ies to the secret of Junius might 
have been so much attached to Air. Grenvilie as to have 
made Juuins always apptar fiienul) 10 that gentleman. 



13 

" has maintained different principles under 
" different signature*.'* letter 54. 

But the seeming inconsistency of General Lee 
aid Julius, at different periods, is peihaps, 
best explained by Junius himself in his 44ih 
letter April 22nd 1771. "If change of cir- 
" cumstances .vere to have no weight in direct- 
*' ing our conduct or opinions, the mutual in- 
S( tercourse of mankind would be nothing more 
" than a co tetttio < between positive and equi- 
" table light Societv would be a state of war, 
" and law itself a st ite of injustice/' 

The fertility of General Lee's mind could 
hardly be surpassed. His writing a letter dated 
Vienna as if he were detai ed bv sickness and 
the want of money, after he had been fighting 
against the Turks, on purpose to furnish the 
parties to his secret with the means of deceiv- 
ing the bankers in Lor.don, and the members 
of the house of lords and commons i »to the 
certainty of his having been so many hundred 
miles from this kingdom, during the publica- 
tion of the letter of Junius to the king; and 
the writing from Florence to S*r Charles Da vers 
a letter of apology for having beeii so long in 
answering his letter, though General Lee'a 
letter is dated 14th May, 1770, aud the paiiak 



14 

register of Rushbrooke proves that General 
Lee Mas on the 20th of April, 1770, in that 
church; and the person who was at the bap- 
tism of Captain Da vers, verifies that General 
Lee Mas nearly the whole of that summer at 
Rushbrooke, are proofs sufficient that tho^e 
letters were written in England, and that Sir 
Charles Bayers* and Lord Thanet were par- 
ties to the secret. 

The legacy which General Lee bequeathed 
to the Americans, for their ungrateful conduct 
to him, i> equal to any of the stratagems which 
were put in force to mislead Mr. Woodfall and 

* But though the friendship of Sir Charles Davers and 
Lord Thanet appears never tn have forsaken General Lee, 
yet it would be injustice to the memory of Lord Thanet 
and Sir Charles Davers, not to believe that General L^c 
had advanced too far, in their opinion, both in his abuse 
and d*-mocracv. For on General Burgovne's arrival »n 
America in 1775 he had brought with him from Lord 
Thanet and Sir Charles Davers letters to General 1> e, 
•with the hopes, through Lee, of putting an end to the 
American hostilities. The following is a passage from 
General Burgovne's letter. 

u Among viher supporters of British rights against 
u American claims, I zcill not speak positively, but I 
* firmly believe, I may name the men of zchose integrL 
V r and judgement you have the highest opinion, end 
*« &kose jrieudslup w nearest your heart; I mean Lord 



i 



15 

the public, with respect to the real author ofc 
Junius. After General Lee had been degraded 
in the American service, and he had turned his 
back on this country, and could command fro^a 
it no part of hi* fortune to transplant himself 
to any other part of the world, he could not 
venture, while living, to abuse the American 
character equal to his opinion of its deserts. 
He therefore knowing that his will must be 
proved in that country, bequeathed a number 
of small legacies to his best frien.Js in America, 
and bestowed the following clause on the rest 
of the American fraternity. " I desire most 
■f, earnestly that I may not be buried in any 



•• Thanet from whom my aid de camp has a letter for 
u you, with another from Sir Charles Divers. 1 do 
4i not inclose them because the writers (little imagining 
4i how difficult your conduct would render our inttr~ 
i% course) desired they might be delivered into your 
* 4 hands. n Long worthy's memoirs oj Lee y page 335. 
Junius must have been equally with Lee advanced in. 
democracy when between September and October 1771, 
he says in his letters to Wilkes, he fates the great as a 
worthless and pitiful race ; that he loves and esteems the 
mob : and when he recommends to Mr. Wilke to put tntr 
whole kingdom up to the plan of forming political clubs 
to alarm the ministry. Sire in Mr. IVooaj all's Junius 
the letters between Junius unci WUkef 9 voi,.X.f,,.2&2tu 334 



16 

" church or churchyard, or within a mile of 
" a iy presbyteriai or ambabtist meeting house; 
<e for since I have resided in this cou rtry I 
e * have kept so much bid company wiiea living 
" that I do not wish to continue it when dead." 

Why General L:e did not publicly confess 
that he was the writer of Junius after he had 
turned his back on this country, does not ap- 
pear to be so difficult a question to answer. 

While General Lee was in prosperity in A- 
merica, he did not wish to give up his corres- 
pondence with the Duke of Richmond, and 
the rest of his friends in this kingdom. This 
General Lee must hive done had his grace 
known that is was Lee, who had bra ided the 
whole race of Stuarts as cowards and hypocrites. 
Nor could any of General Lie's friends in tins 
country have kept up any terms with him, 
after such a public declaration. And on the 
first arrival of Lee in America, he could not 
foresee the lengths, which the Americans would 
go, though from his becoming a traitor he mu«>t 
he cut off from almost all communication with 
his friends in this country. After General Lee 
had been unfortunate it was still more ne- 
cessary to suppress the idea of his ha- 
ving been the writer of Junius, in order 



17 

to prevent his enemies from scoffing at him. 

Junius knew this country too well not to con- 
ceal, in a great measure, his hatred of priests, 
lawyers, and the aristocracy. His object was 
to support the character of a whig of the high- 
est aristocratic order. It has therefore been 
said that Junius could not have been Lee, be- 
cause Lee was a democrat, and a more rash and 
daring character than Junius. In the 59th let- 
ter, Junius, after giving the preference to the 
original english monarchial form of govern- 
ment, says as much as amounts to a confession, 
that the times have made him a democrat. 

" In the personal conduct and manners of 
(C the man (Mr. Sawbridge) I cannot be mis- 
■ c taken, he has shewn himself possessed of 
" that republican firmness, which the times 
" require; and by which an english gentleman 
" may be as usefully and honestly distinguish- 
" ed as any citizen of ancient Rome, Athens 
" or Lacedaemon." 

With respect to daring, could words betray 
a more daring spirit than the following passage 
from his 36th letter— He there confesses that 
he has only been restrained from going still 
greater lengths, by submitting to the judge- 



18 

merit of men more moderate, more candid than 
himself. " I have submitted however to the 
" judgement of men more moderate, perhaps 
" more candid than myself. For my own part 
" I do not pretend to understand those prudent 
" forms of decorum, those gentle rules of dis- 
" cretion, which some men endeavour to unite 
" with the conduct of the most hazardous 
* affairs. Engaged in the defence of an ho- 
" nourable cause I would scorn to provide for 
" a future retreat or to keep terms with a man 
cc who preserves no measure with the public. 
ce Neither the abject submission of deserting his 
" post in the hour of danger nor even the sa- 
" cred shield of cowardice should protect him. 
" I would pursue him through life, and try 
(t the last exertion of my abilities to preserve 
" the perishable infamy of his name and make 
" it immortal/' 

Junius was fortunate in having had so 
honourable a man as Mr. Woodfall for his 
printer. 

But in spite of all the caution which Juni- 
us observed, yet the rashness of attacking so 
many persons of the highest rank in this king- 
dom could only be exceeded by that of turning 



19 

his back upon his country, friends, connexions, 
and fortune for ever. 

The private letters of Junius to Mr. Wood- 
fall plainly prove that Junius began to foresee 
all these dangers. But the love of daring ne- 
ver very long forsook either Lee or Junius. 

The private letter of Junius to caution Mr. 
Woodfall against Swinney as a very dangerous 
man, because he had gone to Lord George 
Sackville to accuse him of having been the 
writer of Junius, tends to confirm me in the 
belief that Lord Thanet was one of the parties 
to the secret of Junius, and accounts for the 
early information, which Junius had obtained. 
For Lady Thanet was the niece of Lord George 
Sackville. 

From the island of St John, November 10, 
1772, Patterson the governor, and great friend 
of Lee, acknowledges from England a letter 
from Lee, which seems to have given Patter- 
son the hints of the trimming Lee was about to 
give Lord Barring'ton and the king under the 
signature of Veteran, fyc. fyc. which Junius 
printed in the beginning of that year. For 
Patterson, after advising Lee to take possession 
of his estate at St. John, says " You will find 

D 2 



20 

your gall bladder decrease in size very much, 
without writing strictures upon any thing, or 
even abusing a king, or a Barrington. 

Lang. mem. of Lee. P. 210. 

In No, 52 January 1772, Junius says in his 
private correspondence to Mr. Woodfall, — He 

has a mind to give a letter to that * . . < 

Barrington. Be careful not to have it known 
to come from me. In No. 62, Junius says to 
the printer. <e next to Grafton I verily believe 
" that the blackest heart in the kingdom be- 
" longs to Barrington*' In No. 62 May 10. 
1772 Junius says, '• pray let this be announc- 
" ed 3 Memoirs of Lord Barrington in our 
" next. Keep the author a secret." 

It is not by detached limbs of a sentence that 
any thing is to be decided about Junius. No 
person will believe that he is a Scotchman be- 
cause in his letter to Lord Barrington, Junius 
pleases to say so, (p. 447. vol 3. Woodfall's 
Junius) or that he is no soldier by profession, 
as he says in a letter to Lord Hillisborough ; 
(154 of same vol.) though in the same vol* 
under the signature of Veteran, Junius says 
— we soldiers. And under the signature of 
the Faithful monitor, he says, speaking of the 



21 

two Townshends, I have served under the one* 
and been forty times promised to he served by 
the other. 

These fictions have no more to do in mark- 
ing the real character of a person, than any 
ose of the feigned characters in a play has to 
decide upon the real character of the writer of 
that play. But it is by the manner in which 
the military sentences of Junius quadrate with 
the military profession, that the profession of 
Junius may be proved to have been that of a 
soldier. Junius recommended the taking of 
money out of the funds and of investing it on 
other securities, on account of the state of the 
nation. Lee seems to have acted up to this ad- 
vice, for, in p, 6 of Lee's memoirs, it will be 
found that Lee had invested all his property on 
mortgages and other securities, except twelve 
hundred pounds, which he had left in his agent's 
hands, and one thousand pounds in the 5 per 
cents. 

General Lee in his prirate letters to Si 
Charles Davers in March 1772, says, " I have 
" not a very good opinion of mankind in ge- 

* Lee served under Lord Townshend at the takjng of 
Quebec, where General Wolfe was killed 



22 

" neral and not a better of your country 
u than the rest." Junius must have had 
equally a bad opinion of mankind for he says 
to Mr. Woodfall, "that without a solid, how- 
u ever small, independence, no man can be 
" happy nor even honest" 

The near connexion between Lee's family 
and Lord Holland's may explain, why Junius 
was disposed to favour Lord Holland. But 
Lee and Junius were in perfect harmony in 
their detestation of Charles Fox.* 

It was a part of the ingenuity of Junius 
to pursue, with unrelenting hostility, the man 
whom he hated ; though it should be at the 
expence of another for whom he had no parti- 
cular enmity. The only military honours which 
Burgoyne acquired, were executed, if not plan- 
ned by Lee in Portugal. And though it might 
be mortifying to Lee to find the recommen- 
dations of Count La Lippe, and his Polish ma- 
jesty unattended to, and Burgoyne remunerat- 
ed with honours and emoluments, yet, indepen- 
dently of these considerations, the desire to ex- 

* See the letter of Lee to Lady Blake, and of Junius 
to the Black Boy under the signature of Anti Fox.- 
p. 409, vol. 3. Woodfall's Junius. 



23 

pose and punish the Duke of Grafton was too 
strong in Junius to suffer any stretch of power 
in his grace towards Burgoyne, or any other 
person, to pass unnoticed. On such an occa- 
sion Junius would have sacrificed any except 
the parties to his secret and G. Grenville ; of 
whom they probably at first had made Junius 
promise never to speak but with respect. For 
the cause* and the public Junius would have 
hazarded any thing. These constituted his 
glory and his kingdom, which he thought 
could never be purchased at too dear a rate. 
And in the language of the Poet he might 

have exclaimed, 

" Pro regno velim 

" Patriam, penates, conjugem flammis dare." 

As to the quoting Lee versus Junius, it 
would undoubtedly be a waste of time. For 
since all the writings of Junius, which Mr. 
Woodfall had in his possession, are before the 
public, Junius versus Junius is just as often 
to be met with in these productions, as in those 
of Zee versus Junius. 

Junius in April 1788(see WoodfalFs Junius 
p. 28, vol. 3 ) accuses Wilkes of being with- 

* See his last private letter to Mr. Woodfall 



24 

out a single qualification moral or political. 
Yet this is the man whom Junius chose to 
correct his dedication, &c. ! ! ! 

Admitting that two persons were equally 
gifted, the variety of scenes to which one had 
been exposed, might make him more experi- 
enced at thirty-six, than the other had been at 
fifty. It is therefore not so easy to determine 
within eight or ten years, the age of Junius 
by his productions; though it is very impro- 
bable that any man between the age of twenty 
and thirty could have written such a book. 
But if Junius could not have written so well 
between thirty -six and forty, as he has done in 
those letters, he could not at fifty. By com- 
paring the age of Lee with that of his school- 
fellows, and connexions, he must have been 
between forty and fifty when he first began to 
write in WoodfalPs paper. 

And to be convinced that long before the 
letters of Junius were written, Lee could write 
with equal indignation, vivacity, perspicuity, 
and energy, it is only necessary to turn to his 
letter to his sister in 1758, after the battle of 
Ticonderoga. 

Junius and Lee are both great repeaters of 



25 

their own sentiments, and in this they resemble 
Algernon Sydney, from whom they have both 
profitted. Junius seldom adopts the idea of 
another without miking it pass for his own, 
fro u the polish which he gives it. The reply 
of the prince of Orange to the duke of Buck- 
ingham — that he had one certain mean left 
not to -see his country ruined, he would die 
in the last dyke — is thus applied by Junius 
to the duke of Grafton — or 'perish bravely 
behind the last dyke of the prerogative — and 
thus by Lee in a private letter to Sir Charles 
Davers — of your virtue to persevere in your 
opposition, until we are all buried in the last 
dyke of liberty. Mr. Pitt in his speech, as it 
is reported by Dr. Johnson, says, — that I may 
be one of those whose follies may cease with 
their youth, and not of that number who are 
ignorant in spite of experience. — Junius has 
thus applied — as you yourself are a singular 
instance of youth without spirit, so the man 
who defends you is no less a remarkable ex- 
ample of age without the benefit of experi- 
ence. Junius in letter 26 in 1771, says to 
Mr. Home — we incline the balance as effectu- 
ally by lessening the weight in one scale as by 

z 



26 

increasing it in the other. — In May 14th 177$ 
the same sentiment is expressed in Lee's pri- 
vate letter to Sir Charles Davers much better 
in the following words — consider moreover 
that the abandoning your post, is not simply 
the loss of one man to the cause of virtue, hut 
that it throws two into the scale of iniquity. 
Lee says — that Charles the first met with no 
harder fate than he deserved, and that Charles 
the second should have made the same exit — 
Junius says — Charles the first lived- and died 
a hypocrite, Charles the second was a hypo- 
crite of another sort and should have died on 
the same scaffold. 

Lee in a sketch of a plan for the formation 
of a military colony, says " A professional 
" lawyer will be totally unnecessary ; indeed I 
<e should as soon think of inoculating my com- 
" munify for the plague as of permitting one 
<c of these gentlemen to reside among us. > 
Lee's mem. p. 79, 80. Junius in a letter to 
John Wilkes., says, c< Though I use the terms 
ec of art, do not injure me so much as to sus- 
<c pect I am a lawyer, I had as lief be a 
" Scotchman. Woodfall's Jun. vol. 1, p. 312. 
Mr. Woodfall has observed that Junius in 
three different letters has applied the epithet* 



2? 

idol to Lord Chatham. Mr. Woodfali might 
have pointed out a fourth letter* where this epi- 
thet is applied to that nobleman. But this is 
the way in which Junius and Lee were apt 
to arrange their thoughts. Neither Lee nor 
Junius in their private letters could name a 
certain duke, or a certain lord, without the, 
epithet scoundrel. Nor could either Junius 
or Lee think of hiving- served under Lord 
Townshend, without a play upon the word 
served. Lee in (p. 105 Longworthy's mem. ) 
speaking of the death of General Wolfe and 
the command devolving on Lord Townshend, 
says, <c This man who served or rather dis^ 
" served under him, is loaded with the high- 
" est preferments and the greatest honours, ( if 
" any thing which flows from such a court 
" can he deemed honours." Junius in the 
Faithful Monitor ( vol. 2 p. 401 ) speaking of 
Lord Townshend and his brother, says, " I 
" have served under the one and been forty 
" times promised to be served by the other. " 
Mr. Bradshaw is seldom spoken of without 
his countenance being compared to the milky 



* Vol. 1 p. 213. toI. 2 p. 461, 516, rol. 3 p. 173. 



2S 

way, or the weeping and sunshine of an April 
day, and his friendship to that of Pylades. And 
Lord Bute is called the Thane both by Lee and 
Junius. 

Identity of the notions of veracity of Lee 
and Junius may be proved from the public de- 
dication of Junius, and his private declaration 
to Mr. Woodfall, and the private confession of 
Lee to Mr. Rodney. 

Identity of hatred may be proved of Juniut 
and Lee against the Scotch, the one by his pub- 
lic abuse of that nation, and the other by his 
not having admitted a single Scotchman among 
the number of his correspondents or friends. 

Identity of coarseness of expressions is equal- 
ly to be met with in the private letters of the 
polished Junius to Mr. Woodfall, as in the pri- 
vate letters of Lee to any of his friends. And 
with a very few exceptions his identity of hatred 
to the same men and measures are to be traced 
through the private correspondence and post- 
humous publications of Lee, as in the letters 
of Junius. 

Identity of banter may be traced in the let- 
ter of Junius to Junina, and of Lee to Miss 
F. p. 430 of memoirs. 

Identity of faults is to be traced in Lee and 



c «9 

Junius. And each writer is most apt to be 
guilty of one of his greatest, faults in his most 
laboured compositions. I mean the fault of 
confounding the unity of the person in a 
sentence or paragraph. This fault occurs se- 
veral times in the 54th letter of Junius to Mr. 
Home. And though it is not easy to rival the 
beauties of Junius, it is easy enough to show 
how each sentence might be restored to its unity 
without scarcely any change in the language of 
the writer. 

<s If any coarse expressions have escaped me 
<f I am ready to agree that they are unfit for 
" Junius to make use of, but J see no rea- 
" son to admit that they have been improper* 
i( ly applied." 

If any coarse expressions have escaped Ju- 
nius, he is ready to agree that they are unfit 
for him to make use of hut he sees no reason 
to admit that they have heen improperly apr 
plied. 

ee As for the common sordid views of ava- 
sc rice, or any purpose of vulgar ambition, I 
" question whether the pen of Junius would 
" be of use to Lord Chatham; my* vote will 

* (t That a man of nay military rank lingering in sus- 



so 

" hardly recommend him to an increase of his 
({ pension or a seat in the cabinet. " 

As for the common sordid vieiv* of avarice 
or any purpose of vulgar ambition, it may be 
questioned whether the pen of Junius would 
be of service to Lord Chatham; the vote of 
Junius will hardly recommend his lordship 
to an increase of his pension or to a seat in 
the cabinet. 

" Whenever Junius appears he must en- 
" counter a host of enemies. But is there no 
" honourable way to serve the public, with- 
" out engaging in personal quarrels with in- 
" significant individuals, or submitting to the 

u pence whilst his fame and fortune are sub judice, is 
ki rather a disgraceful spectacle ; that it is natural for 
u him to wish, and reasonable for him to request, that 
" congress will no longer delay the final decision of 
Xi my fate. " Lee's letter to his excellency Henry 
%owrenS) pres. Long, mem. p. 426. 

" If I have -violated any orders of the comrrjander in 
'•' chief, to him, and the congress only, am I respon- 
J< sible ; but certainly am not amenable to the tribunal 
" of Mr. Wm. Henry Drayton. I shall therefore re- 
" main totally indifferent whether you are pleased to 
u think or dream, that I designedly threw myself in- 
a to the hands of the enemy: kc. kc. Lee's letter 
to Drayton. Long. mem. p. 50. 



31 

<c drudgery of canvassing votes for an elec- 

" tion. Is there no merit in dedicating mij life 

<e to the information of my fellow subjects. 

<c What public question have I declined, what 

" villain have I spared ? 

Whenever Junius appears he must encoun* 
ter a host of enemies. But is there no honour- 
able way to serve the public 'without engag- 
ing in personal quarrels with insignificant 
individuals, or submitting to the drudgery of 
canvassing votes for an election. Is there no 
merit in dedicating his life to the information 
of his fellow subjects. What public question 
has he declined, what villain has he spared? 

Identity of the ceasing of Lee to remain in 
this country, and of Junius to correspond with 
Mr. Woodiall may be also proved. The last 
letter of Junius was dated January 19th 1773, 
Lee embarked for New York in the 16th of 
August 1773 from London and arrived in Ame- 
rica on the 10th of November 1773. 

Junius in his 41 st private letter to Mr. Wood- 
fall Says ({ ACT HONOURABLY BY ME AND AT A 
<c PROPER TIME YOU SHALL KNOW ME. Junius 

kept his word for before he had closed that 
letter, he wrote his real name, by saving.—*- 



32 

" The aspersions thrown upon my Lee to 
" the bill of rights should be refuted 
" by publication. Lee has here written his 
name exactly as he does at the bottom of 
his private letters, when he has not room to 
write it so large as in the far simile which Mr. 
Woodfall has given of his writing. And a 
magnifying glass held over Lee in the fac si- 
mile of Junius in the No. 41, will prove that 
the lower part of the L and the two letters e 
are formed exactly like the signature of Lee 
in the specimen which Mr. Wocdfall has given 
of Lee's writing. To the letter 41 Junius has 
written not only private but added and parti- 
cular. And there is not an abbreviation of the 
word letter in any of the specimens which Mr. 
Woodfall has given of the writing of Junius. 

It is supposed by some, that the trains and asso- 
ciations of a man's thoughts and the dress of 
them, have nothing to do in establishing a pecu- 
liar style in the English lang age, because when 
Junius wrote, the whole whig party had the 
same detestation of the measures of govern- 
ment; and because Erasmus was mistaken in 
attributing a latin tract, which was written a- 
gainst his Ciceronionus, to Hieronimus Alean- 
.der, and that tract happened to have been writ*- 



to i by Julius Scaliger. Of course they, who 
have adopted a similar creed, would think it 
a vain attempt to draw any evidence from style. 
For such readers I have no other arguments 
to bring- forward, than the acknowledged pro- 
bity of Mr. Rodney, and the proofs which I 
have given that Lee supported an alibi, not 
only by a series of fictitiously dated letters 
from different parts of the continent, but by 
occasional trips to Paris, and to other parts, 
where he could most mix witli the English, 
and pretend to be on his return from his Po- 
lish campaigns, or from such parts of Italy 
or France, as his health might have required 
him to visit. 

This plan Lee thought it necessary to adopt 
from the commencement to the finishing of 
those letters, lest, by any accident, he should 
have been suspected by government. And un- 
der the astonishment of the confession of Lee, 
Mr. Rodney appears to have originally misun- 
derstood this minor part of the conversation, 
by supposing that Lee absented himself from 
this country, the whole time, instead of, at 
intervals, from the first to the last of his wri- 
ting the letters of Junius. 



34 

The letters of Junius must have been writ- 
ten by somebody, though neither the late, nor 
the present Mr. Woodfall has been able to say 
by whom. It would be unreasonable in me 
to expect to remove all the objections, which 
can be raised by those who think otherwise 
than myself on this subject; I only give the 
additional facts, which have come down to me 
since my publication in 1807, for the benefit 
of those who take any interest in the enquiry. 

It has been said that Junius is now quoted 
as a classical writer in the english language, 
and that all atempts to discover the real au- 
thor are idle. But, as the use of all histories 
whether of an individual, or of a kingdom, 
is to impress upon the mind the maxim that 
what has been, may he; the termination of 
the fate of Junius would have been instruct- 
ive. And for the same reason the memoirs of 
the life of General Lee are instructive, whe- 
ther he did, or did not, write the letters of 
Junius. It is difficult therefore to say, why 
General Lee has not yet made his way into 
any of the biographical works, which have 
been published in this country since his death, 
which took place in October, KS2. 

It will appear by Mr. Lang worthy's me- 



35 

moirs, and by Gordon's* history of America, 
(though Gordon was a decided enemy to Lee) 
that it was Lee, who animated the Americans 
to declare themselves independent, and to car* 
ry on that protracting and harrassing system 
of warfare with corps of riflemen and bush- 
fighters, which so much annoyed the British 
army, and ultimately completed the success of 
the Americans ; and that it was General Lee's 
seductive letter f to the French, which induced 
that nation to send her troops and her fleets 
to America, to learn those principles, and to 
hasten those revolutions, which France in com- 
mon with the rest of the civilized world, has 
now so much to deplore. 

If the reader should have had the patience 
to proceed thus far perhaps he may extend his 
labours to the annexed letters, and to what I 
printed in 1807. But to complete what I have 
attempted, I shall leave the American gentleman 
Mr. Daniel Carthy,]; to produce his intended 

*See Gordon's history of America, edition 1788, rol # 
4th, p. 305. 

t See this letter in the appendix. 

I See the private letter, No. 6. 
r 2 



36 



life of General Lee with the erasures and alter- 
ations in the letters that were found among the 
papers of Lee in his own hand writing, address- 
ed to the printer of the Public Advertiser. 



37 



PRIVATE LETTERS, 



To Sir Charles Banbury I am indebted for 
the following- letter of General Lee to bis sis- 
ter in 1758, when he served under General 
Braddock in America. 

Sir Charles accompanied this letter to me 
with a few lines saying, that I should perceive, 
that Lee very early began to abuse his supe- 
riors, and wa* not very nice in the terms he 
made use of; that his turn for satire and 
levelling disposition, coupled with his mode of 
expression in his private letters, and Sir Charles 
said he might add in his conversation, com- 
pared with the litters of Junius, afforded 
much presumptive ground to conclude thai Lee 
was the author of them, without taking into 
account the testimony of the American gen- • 
tleman, which, if he was a man of probity*, 
was decisive. 



38 

JY&. 1. 

Albany, Sept. 15th 1758 

My dear sister, 

You should have heard 
from me long before this, but I really had it 
not in my power, as our illustrious chief thinks 
it necessary to conceal from the officers of his 
army, the time when each packet is to sail, 
dreading very justly that some truths might 
be sent over not altogether to his honour, ad- 
vantage, and glory. We therefore are obliged 
to seize the opportunities of private hands; 
this is the first I have met with, and I shall 
not neglect it. 

Captain Harvey* immediately after the affair 
of Ticondaroga wrote to his brother and with it 
a note inclosed to my uncle Bunbury, to inform 
him of my being wounded. Which account 
he undoubtedly communicated either to you or 
my mother. I was very uneasy in not being a- 
ble to write myself, as I am sensible that people 

* This Captain Harrey was the adjutant general in 
Ireland during the publication of the letters of Junius. 
Capt. Harvey was a Suffolk man, a connexion of Sir 
Charles Davers, and, if not a schoolfellow of Sir Charles 
and General Lee. he had been a fellow soldier with them. 



39 

are apt to paint things they receive from a se- 
cond hand in a worse light than they really are. 
My wound at first had a very bad appearance, 
it was a musket shot which passed through my 
body and broke two of my ribs. I lay senseless 
for some time, and with great difficulty was 
carried out of the field by my servant. We 
have lost a great many officers ; amongst them, 
a young man whom I fancy you knew at Ches- 
ter — He was a natural son of Mr. Harvey, his 
name was Burdman, he had not long had a com- 
pany in our regiment ; we regret him much, he 
had all the good qualities which could be de- 
sired either in an officer or companion. As to a 
detail of our affairs or rather the blunders of 
this d — -n'd beastly poltroon (who to the scourge 
and dishonour of the nation is unhappily at the 
head of our army by an instrument of divine 
vengeance to bring about national losses and 
national dishonour) I refer you to the narrative 
here enclosed, a copy of which I desire you 
will transmit to Col. Armiger. I shall not be 
ashamed should it be communicated to others, 
as I think silence would be some disgrace to a 
man that is not an absolute dependent and mer- 
cenary, and who has been an eye witness to 



40 

such superlative blundering, pusillanimity, and 
infamy. 

We are at present a good deal elated with 
the success of Mr. Bradstreet, who has taken 
and destroyed the fort of Cadatangni, it was 
a very important place to the French as a 
magazine for their Indian stores; there was* 
found in it 100 pieces of cannon, 10,000 bar- 
rels of provisions and an immense treasure of 
skins, furs, vermillion, and all sorts of Indian 
finery, It is situated on the north end of lake 
Ontario at the head of the river St. Lawrence; 
the loss of this place with that of Louisbourgh 
may probably be the occasion of a famine in 
Canada. If our booby in chief, had only acted 
with the spirit and prudence of an old woman, 

* Notwithstanding his repeated revisions, Junius from 
the first to the last of his writing, was very apt to use a 
verb in the singular number, where it ought to have been 
in the plural number, and the plural number of a verb 
where it ought to have been in the singular, as in the- 
following passages. 

" When kings and ministers are forgotten, when the 
" force and direction of personal satire is no longer 
" understood." See the dedication of Junius. 

u If Machiavel had not known that an appearance 
<■' of morals and religion are useful in society." See 
Jfee letter of Junius, Sept. 28th, 1771. 



41 

fheir whole country must inevitably this year 
have been reduced. We are now waiting for 
six regiments from Louisbourgh in order to 
cross lake George a second time, and make an- 
other attempt on Ticondaroga — but I am afraid 
we shall make a scurvy figure. The Indians 
will not go with us. They told the general that 
the English army had very fine limbs but no 
head, that he was an old squah, that he should 
wear a petticoat, go home and make sugar, and 
not by pretending to a task he was not equal 
to, blunder so many braver men than himself into 
destruction. We who are wounded are still at 
Albany waiting for the convoy of those regi- 
ments in order to march up the lake. 

My wounds are almost healed. 

Dick Mathews* head makes a great noise 
upon this continent; it is look'd upon as the 
greatest prodigy ; a musket ball was absolute- 
ly flattened against his forehead, just in the 
manner that you may have seen a bullet of 
clay when thrown against a stone wall ; I have 
advised him to bequeath both his head and 
ball to the royal society as a much greater 
curiosity than they were ever before presented 
with. 

o 



42 
JSTp. 9 

Vienna, Dec. 24th, 1769. 
My deal Davers, 

Tho' I have been rendered 
almost incapable of writing by a dreadful fit 
of sickness which has left on me so total a 
relax, dispiritness, and apathy, that I am un- 
equal to the least consistence of thought or 
action of any kind, I can scarcely pardon my- 
self for not mustering up resolution to inform 
my best friend, and old comrade, that I am 
still in the land of the living. I writ to Col- 
man* some days ago chiefly on business, with 
two or three additional lines acquainting him 
with my illness and present situation. 



* Mr. Colman the translator of Terence, writer of 
plays, &c. &c. was the most intimate friend of Mr. 
Oarrick, and the acquaintance of most of the town wit* 
of fashion and fortune in those times. 

And though General Lee had evidently not confided 
his .secret to Mr. Colman, yet ii is very propable that 
it was through him that the friends of Junius had been 
able so soon to communicate to him the intelligence, 
that Garrick had gone to Richmond to tell the king 
that Junius would write no more. 

Besides Lady Thanet having been the niece of Lord 
George SackYille, Lord Thanet himself was his relation 



43 

It would be tedious to give you my history 
since I left Warsaw; let it suffice that I set out 
with Prince Repniti the late ambassador to Po- 
land, that we did not overtake the army on 
the Polish side the Neister, it was advanced 
t\vo days march on Moldavia, and by what 
miracle we reached it I am at loss to expound, 
as the whole country was filled widi Tartars to 
the right, to the left, on every side of us ; how- 
ever we did after being; in a cursed sweat for 
two days and nights without a guide in that 
wild country, and fancying every bush a Tar- 
tar, stumble upon the army. The very day 
after our arrival we had a very smart engage- 

and intimate acquaintance. This connexion and intimacy 
will account for any early intelligence, which wa3 drawn 
from that family. 

Lord Thanet was also intimate with Mr, Hans Stanley 
(see memoirs of Lee, p. 3l2. ) who was a great if not 
a confidential friend of Lord North. 

As members of the whig clubs, Lord Thanet and Sir 
Charles JDavers were able to communicate whatever that 
party could collect against government and the Duke 
of Grafton. At the time of the publication of the 
letters of Junius, the Duke of Grafton was using all 
his interest with the corporation of Bury St. Edrnunds 
against Sir Charles Da vers. 



44 

merit with the Seraskier, who attacked us as 
we were issuing out of a ravine, at the head 
of fifty thousand cavalry. He fell chiefly on 
the left wing of the advanced corps ( where I 
happened to be mounted most superbly on a 
cart horse) the cossacks and hussars he had 
beat and drove back on our infantry, who 
were consequently thrown into great confusi- 
on. The Turks entered at thi9 crisis, trampled 
down part of our infantry, and drove us all 
who were mounted, headlong into the ravine; 
but the valour and firmness of the Russian 
infantry is such, that thrown down, trampled 
upon, and wounded as they were, they fired 
on the backs of the pursuing Turks, and on 
the faces of those who were advancing, which 
together with the steepness and difficulty of 
the ravine, checked their progress till the se- 
cond line of infantry consisting of eight thou- 
sand men were to form on the other margin 
of the ravine, ( which was very narrow ) and 
by a well directed and heavy fire obliged them 
to retreat. Our whole infantry passed the ra- 
vine, formed an oblong square, and in this 
order, notwithstanding the repeated attacks uf 
two days successively, gradually gained one 
eminence after another, and took possession of 



43 

their camp on the heights of Chotzim; pait 
of the Turkish army threw themselves into the 
fortress, the rest contrived to join the grand 
vizier; but I am getting into a detail; to be 
short, we attempted to take the place by force 
of cannon, but (as we had no pieces heavy 
enough for battering works of so great strength) 
in vain ; we then converted it into a blockade, 
but when the grand vizier and Tartar chan 
arrived with a hundred and seventy thousand 
men, we were obliged to collect our force 
(which was reduced to forty thousand) into 
one camp ; hece we waited six days in hopes 
through confidence in numbers, he would have 
attacked us in our camp, which was very 
strong; this he did not seem inclined to do, 
but why we did not attack him (for by his 
strange position he exposed his whole army 
to almost certain perdition ) I cannot conceive. 
At leugth through want of forage and ex- 
cessive bad weather, we were obliged to re- 
pass the Niester, which retreat was disposed 
and executed in so masterly a manner, that 
we did not leave a single man, a single horse 
behind, though our rear was attacked by at 
least sixty thousand cavalry, and a considerable 
corps of infantry. 



46 

Of what happened on the Polish side the 
Niester, you may have seen a pretty just ac- 
count in the papers ; but as none has appear- 
ed with respect to what passed on the Molda- 
vian, I could not help giving you this sketch 
of it. 

I left the army before the last affair hap- 
pened and the abandoning of Chotsim, as I 
was advised to cross the mountains before it 
was too late, and try the waters of Buda, 
which are esteemed infallible for relax and 
rheumatism; to these two agreeable compani- 
ons was added a slow fe\er; I had 'em ail 
upon me before the campaign, but by bad 
water, worse wine, and laying in the mud 
without a tent, they were greatly improved ; 
however I contrived to reach Hungary, but 
in the first town of that country they united 
their forces, I was delirious for eight days, 
and given over for three weeks, but the tough- 
ness of my stamina (which undoubtedly nature 
has conferred on me w ith a generous hand) got 
the better of the beastly ignorance of a sur- 
geon to destroy me. I contrived to get out 
of that miserable village to a decent town 
called Cushem, where I fell into better hands, 
and after a month's stay acquired strength 






47 

su'Ikicr.t to reach Vienna. My intentions were 
to go to some small tosvn in Italy to 1 ive very 
cooly and regularly, ride constantly, acquire 
strength and brace myself; but I am detained 
for want of my baggage and want ot credit. 

I writ to Colman on this subject; my two 
mortgagees I fancy have been remiss on this head, 
otherwise I should have a considerable sum in 
Mr. Hoare's hands. As the forms of the affidavits 
are in my trunks (which I expect here ) necessary 
for the receipt of my half pay, I must beg you 
will advance to Mr. Hoare, 'till I can send you 
the papers signed, two hundred pounds, the 
half pay due is more; my inclination would 
carry me to England, but I am afraid I should 
not have resolution to observe the necessary re- 
gimen, so will attempt re-establishing myself 
first. 

I am sorry to see Suffolk so infamously si- 
lent when other counties are acting; so glori- 
ously. I begin to think my cousin a proper re- 
presentative of 'em. The D your quondam 

friend is really a noble youth, the qualities of 
St'janus, Tigellinus, Empson, and Dudley, seem 
all to be united in his grace at an age when 
most men are troubled with some of those ridicu- 
led qualms called conscience, honour, or at least 



4S 

decorum ; if the axe* is not applied to his neck, 
it is laid to the root of our liberties, national 
honour, and inportance ; there is no medium ; 
for my own part, I will to speak impudently 
after Brutus, resign all things of Rome and 
find out some spot ubi liber ero, ubi libertas 
erit, ibi mini Roma erit. 

America has I think a chance of emerging 
from ministerial oppression ; on this I fix my 
hopes. I wish dear Davers you would write a 
line to my sister informing her of my state and 
situation. I shall in a post or two write to her 

* At page 26, toL 3 Woodfell's Junius under the sig- 
nature of Anti Stuart. 

u I shall not only advise Anti Teague to recommend 
Ci it to his patron, not to trust too much to his dou- 
" ble capacity, lest at some odd turn, he may find 
ct his private person so involved in his public character, 
Ci that the sharpest axe, and the most dextrous operator 
" may not be able to avenge the nation npon the last 
* without doing some small prejudice to the Jirst. " 

And at page 222, same vol. under the signature of 
Augur, Juuius applies to the Duke of Grafton the 
following with many similar sentences. 

11 The day is not far off Avhen these insults will be 
" retorted most severely, and humanity itself will 
w not be able to keep them from your head> though 
a that head should be on the block. " 



49 

and Lord Thanet, but I have exhausted all my 
spirits in paying this tribute to my most sin- 
cere love and friendship for you. 

I beg my love to Lord Thanet, to Fawkener, 
Hall/ and Phipps; f I have not received a line 
from any of them since I left England (except 
Fawkener) though I writ to you all; but I 
suppose the rascally confederates have prevent- 
ed my receiving what was writ. 

I wrote to Mrs. Blake, I beg my respects 
to her, and intreat she will read a chapter of 
Catharine Macauley every day to all her friend* 
and admirers who are in Parliament. 

Adieu my dear friend, and believe me to be, 
most affectionately yours, 
Charles Lee. 

I am heartily glad of Patterson's £ promo- 
tion; wish him joy in my name, and recom- 
mend to him the superintendence of my estate 
in St. John's; I wish he would write to me, 
and tell me what is best to be done with it. 

* Hall, afterwards Stevenson, author of Crazy tales, &c. 
+ Phipps, a relation of General Harvey the adjutant- 
general of Ireland during the publication of Junius; a. 
Connexion also of Sir Charles Davers. 
J By the pedigree of Lord Amherst, this Patterson 



50 
No: 3. * 

Florence, May 14th, 1770. 
My dear Davers, 

Tho' I have been so long 
in answering your letter, I beg you will not 
conclude that it gave me no pleasure; every 
fresh assurance of your friendship (tho* I have 
no occasion for fresh assurance to be convinced 
of it) gives me unspeakable satisfaction. Every 
day I believe my love for you acquires new 
force ( perhaps from a cynical disposition ) in 
comparing you with other men ; I have long- 
been acquainted with your private virtues, and 
am now, thank Heaven, confirmed in my opini- 
on of your public virtue. I am very uneasy at 
your having any thoughts of quitting parlia- 
ment. I know your reasons but cannot approve 
of 'em. You think that as you are no speakes 
and have no turn for business, that you can con- 
tribute but little to stem the torrent of corrup- 

appears to have married his daughter to an Amherst, 
and thus to have become the grandfather of the pre- 
sent Lord Amherst. 
* A defective copy of this letter was found among 
General Lee's papers, which was imperfectly printed 
in Langworthy's memoirs ? and the place and date evi- 
dently were guessed at by the editor. 



51 

tion and villainy, which at present seems to 
bear every thing down before it ; it is this indo- 
lent or despairing method of reasoning of several 
honest men (for I am persuaded that there are 
still several honest men) which has reduced us 
to the dreadful situation we are in at present. 

You know that the God of the Jews, who 
must, or should have been a judge of the Jew- 
ish affairs, as he interfered in 'em so much, was 
of opinion that five righteous men were sufficient 
to save the rotten state of Gomorrah, and I do 
not find that he meant that they should be all 
speakers ; besides the ma ss of the people of Go- 
morrah was entirely polluted, the mass of the 
English people certainly is not. I believe no 
body of people was ever possessed of more pub- 
lic virtue, which is manifest from all their pro- 
ceedings; I conjure you therefore my dear 
friend not in despair to quit the deck and get 
under the hatches, hand a rope, work at the 
pump, do any thing with good will and firm- 
ness, encourage others to do the same, and 
with so intrepid a pilot as Sir George Saville, 
the vessel may perhaps work into the harbour, 
notwithstanding the hellish treason of the ma- 
jor part of the crew. Consider moreover that 

B 2 



b2 

the abandoning your post is not simply the 
loss of one man to the cause of virtue but 
that it throws two into the scale of iniquity 
Yours is a ministerial borough — the instant of 
jour resignation, or rather desertion, the go- 
vernment (as they are pleased to call them- 
selves) claps in your place a most assured 
scoundrel. I must therefore my dear school- 
fellow and fellow soldier, my friend, entreat you 
over and over again, I must co: jure you by the 
spirits of Cato, Brutus, Hampden and Sydney, 
by.e\ery thing that is divine and sacred, not to 
desert your post, but to give to the world as 
convincing testimonies as you have to me, of 
your virtue to persevere in your opposition un- 
til we are all buried in the last dyke of liberty. 
But I am running out of the sphere of a let- 
ter into an enthusiastical rant. The journey, 
^c of air, or something has made a woncer- 
fui alteration for the better in my health ; nay I 
sometimes think that I am stronger, fresher and 
vounger than I was before my illness. 



■ Some pmifjn ar^ omitted because they are too fa* 
ilbx to meet the public pre. But this very far 



53 

But lam going to bathe in the sea of Leg- 
horn, which will quite set me up ; when I am 
sufficiently braced, I perhaps shall set out for 
England; where I intend my principal residence 
shall be Rushbrooke. Did you mention any 
thing to Patterson of my St. John's estate? If 
he is not set out, I wish he would write a 
line to me, inclosed to Sir John Deck, English 
consul at Leghorn, to which place you will 
likewise direct. Is Fawkener in England, or 
where is he? I have writ to him twice, but 
no answer. Have you received the powers for 
my half pay from Lord Thanet, to whom I 
enclosed 'em? If you should see Colman, I 
wish you would desire him to make Mr. Hoare 
send me some credit to Leghorn. 

If I was quite well I perhaps should em* 
bark with the Russian fleet for the Morea. 
Adieu my dear Davers, 
from your ever affectionate, 
Charles Lee. 

I wish I could hear from Hall, or know 
where he was, 

is part of the design to act upon the credulity of any 
who might have been indulged with the perusal of this 
letter. 



54 

J\0. 4. 

Lyons, March the 26th, 1773. 
My dear Davers, 

I wrote to you three weeks 
ago, and discovered yesterday that my letter 
had been lost through my negligence in not 
franking it; shall therefore send you as near 
a copy of it as I am able from memory. 

Nothing could make me so happy as your 
being brought in on the shoulders of your 
county as their representative; but if the least 
degree of expence, cabal, or even solicitation 
had been necessary, I am heartily glad that 
Holt (as I find by the public papers) is returned. 
I have not a very good opinion of mankind in 
general, and not a better of your country than 
the rest, yet I cannot help thinking that your 
character, your manners, your frankness, natu- 
ral blunt good breeding, and your unostentati- 
ous hospitality, must triumph in the end. Con- 
tinue therefore my dear friend the man you are, 
and I flatter myself (if the forms of our consti- 
tution are thought worth preserving) to see you 
the next parliament in the situation you wish. 
If your countrymen are so void of feeling and 
judgement as to prefer any rascally creature of 



55 

ihat * Grafton damn 'em ; resolve 

to detach yourself even from your hereditary 
possessions, pack up your penates, and transfer 
them along with me to some climate and soil 
more friendly to the spirit of liberty. North 
America stretches forth her capacious arms, 
Switzerland, or even the little state of Lucca 
has room to admit a generous few; it is talk- 
ing proudly you will say to rank myself in 
this class, but when men of the first condition 
and property are valuing themselves on their 
zeal for slavery, why should not almost a 
beggar as I am, glory in being the reverse ? 
More of these things another time. 

I am not determined on the place I shall 
move to from hence. My health has been of 
late better; whether it is the air or the charms 
of the country, I know not, that have given 
me spirits and vigour, but I have acquired 'em. 

Dear DaYers write a very long letter witlji 

* The epithet to Grafton in the original I have left out^ 
it is the same which is applird to Lord Barrington in the 
private letter No. 52 of Junius to Mr. Woodfall. la 
No. 61 Junius says to Mr. Woodfall " next to the Duke 
of Grafton I yerily believe that the blackest heart in the 
kingdom belongs to Lord Barrington. " p. 254 vol 1,, 
Woodfall's Junius* 



all that is passing on the . .* stages of 

St. James and St. Stephen. You will direct to 
chez. Messrs. Cordercj fils P a Lyons. 

To whom has old Sycorax left the conduct 
of her cubs now ? A propos will you speak 
to Mr. Mure jour neighbour on the subject, 
of my money ; whether he chuses to pay it 
in when the time expires, or continue it ano- 
ther year, on the same security. 

Write to me immediately. My love to your 
family, for whom I interest myself as I know 
you love 'em. 

Adieu my dear Bavers, 
C. Leiv 

JVb. 5. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 28th 1774. 
My dear Da vers, 

I flattered myself that on 
my return from the southward I should have 
found a letter from you, and am much mortifi- 
ed at the disappointment. Since I wrote, a sys- 
tem so strange has taken place amongst you, 



* The genteel epithet to stages in the original letter 
I have omitted. 



57 

that I find myself at a loss what I am to say, 
how I am to act. Great God ! what a dread- 
ful situation the whole empire is now in; can 
it be possible that the ignorance or corruption 
of the English nation should be so transcend- 
ent as to suffer and to sanctify such measures? 
Lord North has now done your work most 
completely ; nothing but the sudden death of 

his tyrannical can save you from utter 

destruction. I tell you my dear friend, you 
are lost, unless every thing lately with respect 
to this country, is speedily and totally reversed. 
I have now lately run through the colonies 
from Virginia to Boston, and can assure you, 
by all that is solemn and sacred, that there is not 
a man on the whole continent ( placemen and 
some high churchmen excepted ) who is not 
determined to sacrifice his property, his life, 
his wife, family, children, in the cause of 
Boston, which he justly considers as his own. 
Inclosed I send you the resolutions of Oiie 
of their counties, which the delegates of all 
America are sworn to abide by. They are in 
earnest, and will abide by them so strictly, I 
am persuaded that the parent country must 
shake from the foundation. 



5S 

It is needless to write you a detail of their 
proceedings, as I have sketched, aud transmit 
to you the papers, which will instruct you 
more fully than I could possibly do. 

I know not what other men may think, but 
I am sure you cannot disapprove my conduct 
towards General Gage. I did not, and would 
not pay him a visit. A copy of my letter to 
him I send you, which will best explain the 
principles I act from, and my reasons for a- 
voiding him. He makes a most horrible ri- 
diculous figure; I am sorry for it, as I love 
the man; but very glad of it, as I detest the 
office he acts in. He is now actually shut up at 
Boston (with the whole troops he has muster- 
ed) either by real or affected fears. His head 
seems to be turned ; he has nobody to advise 
him but his own family which is very weakly 
composed, and he has perhaps the most able 
and determined men of the whole world to deal 
with. In short he stands on such damned 
ground that he slips every instant. 

The character of New England men, seems 
to me to be totally changed since we knew 'em. 
Instead of gasconade, laziness, self-sufficiency, 
and poltroonery, they appear to me to be 
modest, active, temperate, and I am confident 



59 

in the present cause will prove most formida- 
bly brave. Their rage for war is increased; in 
every town are formed companies of cadets, 
who are as perfect as possible in the manual exer- 
cise, evolutions, and all the minute manoeuvres 
practised by the troops of Europe. The Bos- 
ton company of artillery is allowed to be equal 
to any; so that in reality, they have drill offi- 
cers sufficient to form an army of sixty thou- 
sand men ; and this number the four provinces 
can levy and maintain without neglecting the 
culture of their lands. 

This is the estimate of their people lately 
taken by an order from home. 

Rhode Island 60,000 

New Hampshire 70,000 

Connecticut 196,000 

Masachusets Bay 420,000 

746,000 



I leave you to judge whether it is very 
easy to dragoon these numbers, even should 
the other colonies stand aloof. But they will 
not stand aloof. They will support them with 
their blood and money. The Canadians it 
seems are to be employed against them; but 

i 2 



60 

if a single man stirs, they are determined to 
invite France and Spain to accept the pro- 
digious profits which their commerce affords. 
They want nothing in return but arms, am- 
munition, and perhaps a few artillery officers 
as well as guns. And they certainly are to 
be justified by every law human and di\ine. 
You will ask, where they will find generals?" 
But I ask, what generals have their tyrants ? In 
fact the match in this respect will be pretty 
equal. 

I have marked in the margin of the papers 
I send you those which are best worth read- 
ing. Junius Americanus who gives Gage such 
a trimming is unknown. I will send you if 
to be found, two of my own performances. 
One is an address to the citizens of Philadel- 
phia, the other to those of New York ; they 
are the only things I have wrote here. 

Adieu my dear friend, expect to hear from 
me by every opportunity. 

Your's most affectionately, 
Charles Lee. 
Send the printed papers when you have 
done to Lord Thanet.* 

* Now as Hall, Colman, and seieral of t&e rtst ©£ 



81 

The following is a copy of a letter to Dr. 
Girdlestone from Mr. Isaac Hastings, dated 
London, 27th February, 1S12, 

Dr. Girdlestone, 

Pardon the liberty I have, 
tal§en in addressing you on a subject, which 
I find has excited a strong degree of interest 
and research on your part, as well as on my 
own. It is the pretensions which the celebra- 
ted General Charles Lee has to the authorship 
of the letters signed Junius. 

You may have read in a newspaper print- 
ed in Virginia, a series of numbers signed 
" Salager " in which this opinion is warmly 
advocated. Those numbers were published a 
number of years since. The writer of them 
is my particular friend, Mr. Daniel Carthy, 
a wealthy planter. He served as an officer 
under the late General the last American war. 
He has been actuated in his labours by a per- 
sonal friendship, and an exalted opinion both 

General Lee's friends were still living at that time, had 
they been parties to the secret, the papers would ha e 
been ordered to be sent to them as well as to Lord 
Thanet. 



62 

of his military and literary talents. He soon 
gave up publishing in the newspapers, but 
turned his attention to collecting matter to 
contain the memoirs of his life, and also of 
his authorship of those letters. His labours 
have not been in vain ; and he has such a 
body of evidence, as will be sufficient in my 
opinion, to convince the most stubborn, that 
his and your own opinion on that subject is 
correct. I am an American. 1 have assisted 
Mr. Carthy in his exertions, and have obtain- 
ed an immense number of the original letters 
of the late General, and they are now in the 
possession of Mr. Carthy. Among those pa- 
pers are many of the numbers of Junius ad- 
dressed to the Advertiser, part of which are 
interlineated or erased with every mark of 
originality. There are facts whicfi I am ac- 
quainted with, which perhaps you are not; 
there are others which you are acquainted 
with, that I am not. If we should meet or 
correspond, it would be productive of some 
essential good. 

Mr. Charles Murray, solicitor, No. 44 Bed- 
ford Row London, is my particular friend. 
He is the son of the late Dr. Murray of Nor- 
wich : and he recollects you and professes a 



63 

high esteem for your character. I have com- 
municated my sentiments to Mr. Murray on 
this subject. Any communication which you 
may be pleased to make either to him or me 
will be very acceptable. A personal interview 
with you would be desirable both to Mr. M. 
and mvself, being convinced it would tend to 
promote our mutual views. My address is 
No. 1 1 Adam St. Adelphi. I am, Sir, with 
sentiments of respect and esteem, 

Your most obedt. Servt. 

Isaac Hastings, 



As I could not think of betraying the secrets 
which Mr. Woodfall had communicated to me 
relative to Junius, I answered the letter of Mr, 
Hastings by assuring him that the most probable 
chance of overcoming the prejudices which 
were opposed to the notion of General Lee hav- 
ing been the writer of Junius, would be, for 
Mr. Carthy to wait till the interesting produc- 
tion of Mr. Woodfall should make its appear- 
ance. Mr. Hastings was obliged to return to 
America and expected to revisit this country in 
a few weeks; and on acknowledging the lecep- 



64 

tion of my letter, he enclosed me the following 
letter which General Lee wrote on his having 
been taken prisoner by General Harcourt. This 
letter the reader may find is noticed in the first 
yol. p. 514 of Gibbon's life. 

The following is a copy of a letter, from Ge- 
neral Lee, after he was taken prisoner, to Capt. 
Kennedy. 

" Sir, 

" The fortune of war, the activity of 
" Colonel Harcourt, and the rascallity of my 
" own troops have made me your prisoner I 
" submit to my fate, and I hope that whatever 
" may be my destiny I shall meet it with becom- 
" ing fortitude; but I have the consolation of 
" thinking, amidst all my distresses that I was 
4t engaged in the noblest cause that ever inter- 
" ested mankind. It would seem that Provi- 
" dence had determined that not one freeman 
(C should be left upon earth; and the success 
u . of your arms more than foretell one univer- 
fc sal system of slavery. Imagine not, however, 
%e that I lament my fortune, or mean to depre- 
e [ cate the malice of my enemies ; if any sorrow 



65 

a can at present affect me, it is that of a great 
" continent, apparently destined for empire, 
" frustrated in the honest ambition of being 
" free, and enslaved by men, whom unfortu- 
" nately I call my countrymen. 

w To Col. Harcourt's activity every com- 
iC mendation is due; had I commanded such 
" men, I had this day been free; but my ill 
" fortune has prevailed, and you behold me 
" no longer hostile to England, but con- 
" temptible and a prisoner! 

* I have not time to add more; but let 
(< me assure you, that no vicissitudes have 
a been able to alter my sentiments; and that 
cr as I have long supported those sentiments 
" in all difficulties and dangers, I will never 
'• depart from them but with life. 

"C. Lee." 

* To, Capt. Kennedy. 



REASONS, 



><*9Q9*»< 



The following passage relative to Junius is 
taken from the St. James's Chronicle of April 
the 16th, 1803. 

te The impenetrable mystery that hangs 0- 
ver the author of the celebrated Utters of 
Junius, is so favourable to the propagation 
of reports, that we may expect to hear that 
they have been ascribed in succession to every 
distinguished character who flourished during 
the period of their publication. The follow- 
ing article, however, which appeared in a late 
number of The Wilmington (Delaware) 
Mirror, is founded upon a stronger asserti- 
on than has ever before been made upon the 

* The following pages are those to which I adrerted as 
having printed in 1807, under the title of Reasons for 
rejecting the presumptive evidence of Mr. Almon, 
$b 8fc. 

K 2 



68 

subject; for it proceeds upon a supposed ac- 
knowledgement of Junius himself! Of Mr. 
Rodney, or of the degree of credit that may 
reasonably he attached to his declaration, we 
know nothing, but the subject is so curious, 
that we think our readers will not be averse 
from having their attention once more drawn 
to it." 

" No political writings ever made mre 
« noise in the world, or were more celebrated, 
" than the letters signed Junius, and publish- 
(< ed in London more than twenty years ago. 
" And as the author conveyed those letters to 
" the press in such a secret manner as to con- 
" ceal himself entirely from the knowledge of 
" the public, and every other person, the pub- 
" lie curiosity has been excited from time to 
'* lime to this, to know who he was. 

" Frequent and various have been the con- 
" jectures repecting him; but all have accord- 
" ed in attributing those letters, to one person 
a or other of ; ,the most eminent abilities. This, 
" without doubt, does the author great ho- 
" nour. I have observed, in some of our late 
" papers, that they were attributed to the ce- 
" lebrat<d Dunning, by one writer, and to the 
u Earl of Chatham by another. But to *a- 



C9 

99 tisfy the curiosity of the world, and to pre* 
" elude all future and uncertain conjectures, 
" I can assure the public, that our celebrated 
" Major-General Charles Lee, of the Ame- 
" rican army, was the real author of these 
* letters. And although he had declared that 
" the secret rested solely with himself, and 
" that he meant to carry it to the grave with 
" him ; yet I alfirm, *and answer to the public, 
<c that he revealed it to me, and, perhaps, to 
" no other person, in the world. 

" In the fall of \11S 3 not long after General 

" Lee had arrived in America, I had the plea- 

" sure of spending an afternoon in his company, 

" when there was no other person present. Our 

" conversation chiefly turned on politics, and 

" was mutually free and open. Among other 

" things, the letters of Junius were mentioned, 

" and General Ltc asked me, who was conjec- 

" tured to be the author of these letters. I re- 

" plied, our conjectures here generally follow- 

(C ed those started in England; but, for myself, 

<c I concluded, from the spirit, style, patriotism, 

rt and political information which they display- 

" ed, that Lord Chatham was the author ; and 

* yet there were some sentiments there that indi- 

*' cated his not being the author. General Lee 



70 

<e immediately replied, with considerable ani- 
<e mation, affirming, that to his certain know- 
ce ledge, Lord Chatham was not the author; 
1C neither did he know who the author was, any 
f more than I did ; that there was not a man 
rt in the world, no, not even Woodfall, the 
'* publisher, that knew who the author was; 
" that the secret rested solely with himself, 
et and for ever would remain with him. 

" Feeling, in some degree, surprised at this 
<c unexpected declaration, after pausing a lit— 
fC tie, t replied : c No, General Lee, if you cer- 
" taiiily know what you have affirmed, it can 
c< no longer remain solely with him; for, cer- 
(t tainly, no one could Juiow what you have 
te affirmed but the author himself. 

" Recollecting himself, he replied: ' I have 
" unguardedly committed myself, and it -would 
ec be but folly to deny to you that I am the 
cc author; but I must request that you will 
" not reveal it during my life; for it never was 
cc nor never Mill be revealed by me to any 
fC other?* He then proceeded to mention seve- 
" ral circumstances to verify his being the au- 
" ihor; and, amorg them, that of his going 
" over to the Continent, and absenting himself 
ie from England most of the time in which 



71 

" these letters were published in London, &c. 
" &e. This he thought necessary, lest, by some 
" accident, the author should become kuown 
" or, at least, suspected, which might have 
u been his ruin, had he been known to the 
" Court of London, &e. 

u Whoever will compare the letters of Ge- 
" neral Lee, written to several of the Biitish 
€t officers at the commencement of our revolu- 
" tionary war, with those of Junius, will pro- 
rt bably be convinced that they were dictated 
" by the same mind, and written by the same 
" hand ; but however that may be, I affirm, 
" that what I have herein communicated to 
<e the public relative to General Lee's commu- 
Cf nication to me repectiag the author of Ju- 
" nius, is, in substance, strictly true, and no 
" doubt remains with me but that he was the 
" real author. 

< T. Rodney. " 

" Dover, February I, 1803. 



The perusal of the above testimony occa- 
sioned a comparison of the letters of Junius 
with those of General Lee, which were pub- 
lished in his memoirs, by Jordan, in Loudon, 



ft 

in 1792*. And, as the dates of the letters to 
and from General Lee, convict Mr. Aim on of 
many inaccuracies, it became the amusement 
of a few idle hours to examine the presumptive 
evidence of Mr. Almon in favour of Mr. Boyd 
having been the writer of Junius, and to note 
down some passages from the memoirs of Ge- 
neral Lee, and such observations as, it is pre^ 
sumed, would have occurred to any reader, 
who would take the trouble of comparing the 
style and sentiments of General Lee's writings 
with those ot Junius. 

But as it appears by the letter of Sir Tho- 
mas Wroughton, that General Lee was in 
England in 1767. And by the testimony of a 
person who is still living, that he was in 
London in 176S, 1769, 1770, and backwards 
and forwards from London to Rushbrooke 
in Suffolk, till the year 1772, there is no ne- 
cessity in this re-publication, to examine so 
minutely the dates of General Lee's letters to 
his friends, or the memorandum book from 
which Mr, Langworthy had supposed that Ge- 



* The second edition of these memoirs was published 
in 1797, and all the references are made to the pages 
in that edition. 



73 

neral* Lee had made such rapid movements over 
the continent. 

After 1776, his Warsaw was London, his 
Vienna, London, his Florence London, his 
Lyons, London. 

Nor is it necessary to prove that General 
Lee absented himself every now and then to 
the continent for two or three weeks ; since the 
private letters of Junius to Mr. Woodfall 
evince that Junius used occasionally to absent 
himself for such a length of time. All the 
observations on Mr. Aimon therefore, in this 
re-publication, are omitted down to the consi- 
deration of the age of Boyd. 

As Boyd had not attained his twenty-third 
year when Junius was published, it is not 
very likely that such writings could have been 
the production of so young a man. 

The deep thinking, and long experience, 
which many of the passages must have requi- 
red, are sufficient to discredit the idea of these 
letters having been the production of a very 
young man. Many of the parts discover that 
personal knowledge of the members of both 
houses of parliament, of men of rank in our 
^army, and of princes and peasants in foreign 



74 

countries, which no man of twenty-three had 
ever attained. Many of the aphorisms had, 
doubtless, been deliberately made, and long 
treasured up, for some great design. And 
had Junius lived to have doubled the number 
of his letters, it is not very likely that he 
could, in his succeeding writings, have scat- 
tered an equal number of beautiful and ori- 
ginal images,* or of such maxims as the fol- 
lowing; 

" Reproaches and injuries have no power to 
iS afliict either the man of unblemished inte- 
" gritv, or the abandoned profligate. It is 
(i the middle compound character which alone 
ce is vulnerable; the man who, without firmness 
<c enough to avoid a dishonourable action, ha? 
" feeling enough to be ashamed of it.f 

* A careful examination of the letters of Junius wiil 
convince the reader, that a3 Junius approached a con- 
clusion, he became less of a figurative, and more of a 
mere matter of fact writer. 

f Though Junius is apt to improve the idea of ano- 
ther, he seldom improves his own original idea. The 
above passage he wrote in 1769. lie has disfigured it 
in his letter to Lord Suffolk in 1771, into the follow, 
ing words. (See WoodfalPs Junius, vol. 3, p. 401.) 

" For I still beleive you to consist of that cemposi. 



75 

" Good faith and folly have so long been 
" received as synonymous terms, that the re- 
,f verse proposition has grown into credit, and 
<c every villain fancies himself a man of abi- 
" lilies.** 

l( The ravs of roval indignation collected 
" upon him, seised only to illuminate, and 
" could not cons u me." 

" The coldest bodies warm with opposition, 
Cf the hardest sparkle in collision." 

" The vices operate like age — bring on dis- 
u ease before its time, and, in the prime of 
" youth, leave the character broken and ex- 
(t hausted." 

" Under an arbitrary government, all ranks 
" and distinctions are confounded. The ho- 
iC nour of a nobleman is no more than the re- 
" putation of a peasant; for, with different li- 
" veries, they are equally slaves ! " 

" A clear, unblemished character, compre- 
<c hends, not only the integrity which will not 
u offer, but the spirit which will not submit 
" to an injury. And whether it belongs to 



c * tion, which, without virtue enough to avoid a pro. 

** stitution, has feeling enough to be ashamed of it.* 

l 2 






76 

* an individual, or to a community, it is the 
" foundation of peace, of independence, and 
"■ of safety j Private credit is wealth ; public 
" honour is security. — The feather which a- 
" dorns the royal bird supports his flight; 
" strip him of his plumage and you fix him 
" to the earth." 

" It is not necessary that I should confide 
" in the honour of a man who already seems 
t( to hate me with as much rancour as if I 
il had formerly been his friend/' 

" The flaming patriot who so lately scorch- 
" ed us in the meridian, sinks temperately to 
** the west, and is hardly felt as he descends/* 

" As for the differences of opinion upon spe- 
f - culative questions, if we wait until they 
** are reconciled, the action of human affairs 
" must be suspended for ever/' 

" In the shipwreck of the state, trifles float 
" and are preserved, while every thing solid 
u and valuable sinks to the bottom and is lost 
(C for ever." 

" He never weeps but like an April shower, 
ce with a ray of sunshine upon his counte- 
" nance/' 

" Yet some men are bigotted in politics* 
"* who are infidels in religion." 



7.7 

tc To investigate a question in law, demands 
** some labour and attention, though very lit— 
%c tie genius or sagacity." 

" As a practical profession, the study of the 
u law requires but a moderate portion of abi- 
" lilies. The learning of a pleader is usually 
" on a par with his integrity." 

" The indiscriminate defence of right and 
' c wrong, contracts the understanding, while it 
" corrupts the heart. Subtlety is soon mistaken 
" for wisdom, and impunity for virtue. If 
u there be any instances upon record, as some 
" there are undoubtedly, of genius and mora- 
" lity united in a lawyer, they are distinguish- 
" ed by their singularity, and operate as ex- 
" ceptions." 

Junius was uniform in his dislike to law- 
yers. In June 1769, he says, 

" As to lawyers — their profession is sup- 
u ported by an indiscriminate use of right and 
" wrong; and I confess that I have not that 
" opinion of their knowledge or integrity, to 
" think it necessary that they should decide 
u for me upon a plain constitutional question." 

In January 1772, Junius says, 

" But other men are willing enough to take 
• the law upon trust. They rely upon your 



7S 

" authority (Lord Mansfield's) because thej 
" are too indolent to search for information; 
s< or conceiving that there is some mystery in 
" the laws of their country which lawyers 
" only are qualified to explain, they distrust 
u their judgement, and voluntarily renounce 
" the right of thinking for themselves." 

In the miscellaneous letter 90, page 39S, 
vol. 3, Woodfails Junius, he savs, 

" I am neither surprised nor shocked at a- 
" ny. inconsistency in Mr. Wedderburne; his 
" profession sets his principles at auction, and 
" it is reasonable that the ^highest bidder 
" should command them." 

The similarity of the opinions of General 
Lee and Junius is every where to be traced, 
on all legal, civil, and military affairs. 

When we consider that General Lee was 
connected, very nearly, with two baronets in 
Suffolk, and was the most intimate friend of a 
third (Sir Charles Da vers) in that county; that 
he had been from his eleventh year in the army, 
and had acquired a competent share of Greek 
and Latin; and, by travelling, had attained the 
Italian, Spanish, German, and French languages, 
and the rank of a Colonel io the British 
army, prior to the publication of Junius, there 



79 

is much more reason to suppose such a man 
than a student in the Temple of twenty-three, 
to be the author of those letters. The Duke 
of Grafton lived in the very county where Ge- 
neral Lee oftenest visited, and had many cor- 
respondents. General Lee had friends in the 
highest stations, and it will appear by his cor- 
respondence, PRIOR TO THE PUBLICATION OF Ju- 
nius, that the men and measures which he dis- 
liked, are those which formed the subjects of 
the letters of Junius. It may also be observed 
on the writings of Junius, how many of the 
phrases of that writer are military. And as 
more of his images are taken from the military 
profession than any other, they prove that Ju- 
nius was by profession a soldier. There is 
scarcely a page where the words defeated, sur- 
render, forced, silenced, retreat, subduing, with- 
drazvn, invasion, command, §c. do not occur, 
besides the following passages. 

* k A wise and generous people are roused by 
w every appearance of oppressive, unconstitu- 
" tional measures. Whether those measures 
:i are supported only by the power of govern- 
'• merit, or masked under the forms of a Court 
" of Justice." (21 Jan. 1769.) 

(c A submissive administration was at last 



so 

€< collected from the deserters of all parties, in- 
" terests, and connexions, and nothing remain- 
ee ed but to find a leader for these gallant, 
" well disciplined troops." 

" His palace is heseiged; the lines of cir- 
" cumvallation are drawing round him; and 
" unless he find a resource in his own activity, 
" or in the attachment of the real friends of 
" his family, the best of princes must submit 
€C to the confinement of a state-prisoner, until 
" jour Grace's death or some less fortunate 
" event shall raise the seige. But, my Lord, 
" you may quit the field of business, though 
" not the field of danger/' 

<( They feel and resent as they ought to do 
cc that invariable undistinguishiug favour, with 
" which the guards are treated, while those 
f< gallant troops by whom every hazardous ser- 
" vice, every laborious enterprise is performed 
* e are left to perish in garrisons abroad, or pine 
" in quarters at home neglected and forgo t- 
« ten. 5 '* 

* The above passage was taken from the letter of Dec. 
19th 1769; but the same opinion of the guards is to be 
met with in the letter of Oct. 17th 176*9. Junius there 
says; 

" It is not that there is any internal vice or defect ia 



81 

te We were taught to expect that you would 
ce not leave the ruin of this country to be 
u completed by other hands, but were deter- 
" mined either to gain a decisive victory over 
" the constitution, or to perish bravely be- 
cc hind the last dyke of the prerogative/' 

* The odium of measures adopted by the 
" collective body, sits lightly upon the sepa- 
ee rate members, who compose it. They re- 
" tire into summer-quarters, and rest from the 
" disgraceful labours of the campaign" $$c. 

" Not daring to attack the main body of 
tc Junius's last letter, he triumphs in having, 
" as he thinks, surprised an out-post, and cut 
" off a detached argument, a mere straggling 



" the profession itself, as regulated in this country, but 
" that it is the spirit of this particular corps to despise 
" their profession • and that while they vainly assume 
<c the lead of the army, they make it matter of imper- 
" tinent comparison, and triumph over the bravest troops 
" in the world (I mean our marching regiments) that 
<c they indeed stand upon higher ground, and are pri- 
" vileged to neglect the laborious forms of military dis- 
" cipline and duty. Without dwelling longer upon a 
u most invidious subject, I shall leave it to military men 
" who have seen a service more active than the parade, 
" to determine, whether or no I speak truth." 

M 



82 

« proposition." (Philo Junius, Feb. 6. 1771.) 

<e I may quit the service; but it would be 
" absurd to suspect me of desertion. 3 * 

" We trusted our representatives with pri- 
ce vileges for their own defence. We cannot 
" hinder their desertion; but we can prevent 
" their carrying over their arms to the ser- 
" vice of the enemy." 

" There they stand ashamed to retreat — 
(i unable to advance." 

" Lord Weymouth has cowardice to plead, 
iC and a desertion of a later date than your 
" own; and if you consider the dignity of the 
<e post he deserted, you will hardly think it 
" decent to quarter him upon Mr. Rigby." 

ec Thanks are undoubtedly due to every man 
ce who does his duty in the engagement ; but 
" it is the wounded soldier who deserves the 
" reward." 

" • have taught him to new model the 
" civil forces of the state. Corruption glit- 
" ters in the van — collects and maintains a 
" standing army of mercenaries." 

" What! though he (Mr. Calcraft) riots in 
ec the plunder of the army; and has only de- 
" termined to be a patriot when he could not 
" be a peer." 



83 

" Let us profit by the assistance of such 
" men while they are with us, and place them, 
<( if possible, in the post of danger, to prevent 
" desertion. " 

" The wary Wedderburne, the pompous 
u Suffolk never threw away the scabbard, nor 
" ever went upon a forlorn hope. 

The legal knowledge of Junius also tends to 
prove him to have been a soldier. For long be- 
fore a military man has attained the rank of 
a field officer, if he has any zeal for his pro- 
fession, he will find the necessity of knowing 
the municipal and civil, as well as the mili- 
tary laws of his country. 

After having endeavoured to ascertain the 
profession of Junius, it becomes necessary for 
me to show that General Lee, through the 
friendship of Sir Thomas Wroughton, had dis- 
covered, two years prior to the publication of 
Junius, that all hopes of further promotion, 
rewards, or honours, would be withheld from 
him in this country. The following is a pas- 
sage of a letter from Sir Thomas Wroughton, 
dated Warsaw, 29th April, 1767.* 

* See the whole of this letter in the appendix. 
m 2 



84 

I should have been heartily glad to have 
heard,, my dear colonel, that his majesty's 
recommendation had been more successful, 
m procuring you an establishment, equal to 
:c your merit and wishes; but am not at all 
surprised that you find the door shut against 
:c y ou , by the person who has had such un- 
bounded credit; as you have ever too 
" fredy indulged a liberty of declaiming, 
" which many infamous and invidious people 
f * have not failed to inform him of. The 
ec principle upon which you thus openly speak 
" your mind is honest and patriotic, but not 
" politic; and, as it will not succeed in chang- 
" ing men or times, common prudence should 
" teach us to hold our tongues, rather than 
" to iisk our own fortunes, without any pros- 
" pect of advantage to ourselves or neigh- 
" bours. Excuse this scrap of advice, and 
" place it to the bent of a heart entirely de- 
" voted to your interest/' 

As General Lee was thus informed by Sir 
Thomas Wroughfon, that the King of Poland's 
recommendation could not succeed in recom- 
mending him to the English ministers, the fol- 
lowing passage in letter of Junius, Oct. 5th, 
1771, may glance as much at General Lee's 



85 

©wn situation as Wilkes's, provided, the proofs 
which are to follow, should be sufficient to 
establsh General Lee as the writer of Junius. 

" When a man, who stands forth for the 
cc public, has gone that length from which 
" there is no retreat, — when he has given that 
" kind of personal offence which a pious mo- 
ec narch never pardons, I then begin to think 
" him in earnest, and that he never will have 
" occasion to solicit the forgiveness of his 
" country. But instances of a determination 
tc so entire and unreserved, are rarely met 
* with." 

Before I proceed to the passages which tend 
to prove the similarity of style of General Lee 
and Junius, it will be necessary for me to 
give such extracts, previous to the publica- 
tion of Junius, as will evince the ?arne dislike 
to men and measures as are to be met with 
in Junius. 

General Lee was in London Dec. 25th, 1776, 
and the following passage is taken from a let- 
ter of his, dated at that time, to a prince at 
Warsaw. 

" The king and his ministers are out of 
€e town, or more properly I should have said, 



86 

<e the ministers and the king; for I do not 
" find that the latter is any more a principal. 
<c than when I left England. Lord Chatham 
/' is supposed to be absolute in all affairs 
" which concern the state; Bute,, in his corner, 
(C retains influence to a sufficient degree for 
" the provision of his creatures and country- 
" men in subordinate offices ; he disclaims all 
'' concern with business; but this is like the 
" rest of his conduct — a most impudent and 
u ineffectual hypocrisy;* for he is, as usual, 
" not credited. " 

" A formidable opposition is expected, but 
" the conjectures on this subject are too vague 
" to be attended to. Some men of weight and 
" reputation are embarked in it; buttho heads 
" are too odious to the nation in general, in 
" my opinion, to carry their point. Such as 
m Bedford, Sandwich, G. Grenville, and, with 
" submission, your friend Mansfield. He late- 
" ly drew upon himself the laugh of the house 



* General Lee and Junius -were both of this opinion; 
but there is not at this time, one of the Bute family 
v/ho does not know that Lord Bute had no roice in 
the councils of the state, or influence over his Majesty, 
after his lordship had retired from office. 



87 

" of lords, for making use of the word ' liberty 
** of the subject ;' and expressing great regard 
" to it; it was called, Satan preaching up 
« sanctity." 

<c Conway is still secretary of state, and much 
" regarded as a man of ability and integrity. 
" Lord Shelburne,* the other secretary has sur- 
" passed the opinion of the world ; he speaks 
tc well, and is very distinct in office. The Duke 

* To whatever cause it was owing, the opinion of Junius 
with respect to particular persons, underwent consider- 
able changes between the years 1766, and 1772. Mr. 
Woodfall has added a most interesting note to the third 
letter of the original letters of Junius. And by the 
twelfth letter, one would have thought that Junius was 
really friendly to Lord Shelburne, 

In the years 1767 and 1768, it was certainly other- 
wise; for under the signature of Correggio, Junius ad- 
vises the painter to add a little more of the devil — and 
that a binking bull dog placed near his lordship, would 
form a very excellent type of his good qualities. 

And under the signature of Atticus, Junius says of 
Lord Shelburne, u Before he was an ensign, be thought 
himself fit to be a general ; and to be a leading minis- 
ter before he ever saw a public office. The life of 
this youug man is a satire on mankind. The treachery 
which deserts a friend, might be a virtue, compared 
to the fawning baseness which attaches itself to a de* 
dared enemy." Vol. 3. p. 173, Woodfall's Junius. 



8S 

ce of Grafton is an absolute orator, and has a 
" fair character/' 

<( An Irishman, one Mr. Burke is sprung up 
" in the house of commons, who has astonished 
" every body with the power of his eloquence, 
** his comprehensive knowledge in all exterior 
Cf and interior politics and commercial interests. 
" He wants nothing but that sort of dignity, 
" annexed to rank and property in England, to 
cc make him the most considerable man in the 
" lower house." 

In a letter to Mr. Colman,* dated Warsaw, 
May 1, 1767, General Lee says : 

" As to England, I am resolved not to set 
" my foot in it, till the virtue, which I believe 
" to exist in the tody of the people f can be 
" put in motion. I have good reasons for it. 

* Memoirs, page 300 

£ The body of the people^ is a favourite phrase, both 
of General Lee and Junius; as is the safety of the 
subject , the birthright of the people^ the favour of 
the people. 

" I do not presume to instruct the learned, but to 
c< inform the body of the people." Junius^ Aug. 8. 1769. 

" What remains to be done concerns the collective body 
u of the people:" Junius. Aug. 8, 1769. 



89 

€ - My spirits, my temper, w°re much affected 
P by the measures which I was witness of, 
<e measures absolutely moderate, laudable a id 
ce virtuous, in comparison of what has been 
u transacted since. To return solemn thanks 
" to the crown for the manifest corrupt dissi- 
u pat ion of its enormous revenues aud impu- 
" dent demand on the people: to repair thus 
" dissipation, to complete their own ruin/ is 

and defended the safety of the subject, the 

u birthright of the people." Junius, Oct. 17, 1769. 

*• Animated by the favour of the people." 

Junius, Dec. 19, 1769. 

u The time is come, when the body of the English 
c< people must assert their own cause. 

Junius, Mar. 19, 1770. 

u One particular class of men are permitted to call 
c< themselves the king's friends, as if the body of the 
U people were the king's enemies." May 28, 1770. 

M Edward If. made the same distinction between the 
K collective body of the people." May 28, 1770. 

* The expulsion of Mr. Wilkes predetermined in the 
cabinet; the power of depriving the subject of his birth- 
right, attributed to a resolution of one branch of the le- 
gislature; the constitution impudently invaded by the 
house of commons ; the right of defending it treacherously 
renounced by the house of lords — These are strokes, my 
lord, which &c. Junius, June 22, 1771. 

\ 



90 

" pushing servility further than the rascally 

" senate of Tiberius was guilty of. In this 

e light it is considered by all those whom I 

converse with of every nation, even those 
ie who have the least idea of liberty. 

fc The Austrians and Russians hoot at us. 

In fine, it is looked upon as the ultimatum 

of human baseness, a coup de grace to our 
" freedom and national honour. 

The next letter from which I shall make a 
long quotation, is addressed to a lady, and by 
mistake of the editor, to Mrs. jVT Cauley, from 
the circumstance of the General finishing his 
letter by wishing the lady to have as many 
daughters as possible, and as like herself as 
possible, " and some descendants of Catharine 
" ]\r Cauley may attribute the salvation of 
" the state to her progeny" But whoever 
knows that Sir Charles Bunbury and Lady 
Blake resided in Suffolk, and were brother and 
sister, and first cousins to General Lee, will 
by the citations from this letter perceive, that 
it was addressed to Lady Blake, of Langham, 
in Suffolk. It is dated Warsaw, May the 2nd, 
1767.* 

* Memoirs, 305, 






ce Your understanding, and the care you 
™ have taken to cultivate it, cuts me off from 
" some of the most fruitful subjects to fe»nale 
(f correspondents; the dress, intrigue, and di- 
" versions of the women in the places we pass 
(< through : but on the other hand it affords 
" me ample liberty of pouring out my mind 
** upon subjects which, unfortunately for my 
** own ease, engross it entirely; the dreadful 
" situation of all the honest part of mankind, 
" and particularly of our own country, How 
C( miserably fallen she is in the eyes of every 
" state! How suiik are we (in a few months 
(< I may say) from the summit of glory, opu- 
" lence, and strength, to the lowest degree of 
<c poverty, imbecility, and contempt. Europe 
" is astonished at the rapidity of the change; 
" high and low, men of every order, from the 
" ministers of state to the political barbers, 
(e make it the subject of their admiration." 

" How can it happen, say they, that Great 
n Britain so lately the mistress of the globe, 
" with America iu one hand, Asia and Africa 
(C in another, instead of the glorious task of 
t{ giving laws and peace to nations, protecting 
" the weak and injured, checking the powerful 

w 2 



92 

ef and oppressive, should employ so much time 
" in trampling on the rights of her dependen- 
" cies, and violating her own sacred lazvs, on 
" which her superiority over her neighbours 
<c is founded ? It was some consolation, say 
" they, for the generous few of the Romans 
" who survived the liberties of their country, 
te that it was Julius Caesar, a man with more 
<( than mortal talents, who was their subvert- 
" er: and the patriots of England had some 
" mitigation for their spleen, that it was a 
<c Cromwell who had over-reached them; but 

" that should be able 

<c to encompass the enslaving of a spirited na- 
" tion, whose every law seems dictated by li~ 
" berty herself, is too much to bear. They 
" compare the noble remonstrances of the 
" French parliament against the oppressions of 
" their court, with the slaxhh addresses of 
u ours." 

<f I must confess, that instead of sending 
" for cooks and hair-dressers from that coun- 
" try, I have long wished that we were to sup- 
" ply ourselves with members of parliament. 
<( What it will come to I know not, but it is 
<( time something should be done, and I flatter 
" myself it will: there is much spirit in the 



93 

<! body of the people; but I will endeavour to 
" quit this subject; it makes me mad. 

" This country is the reverse of ours; thej 
" have an honest patriot k — g, but a vicious 
" nation. If God delights in seeing a virtuous 
" man (as Seneca supposes he does) struggling 
" with adversities, he has a charming specta- 
" cle in the King of Poland ; and I hope God 
" will, in the end, recompense the instrument 
" of his pleasure, by extricating him out of 
<c his distresses; nothing else can I am sure . . 

« You must excuse me 

u entering: into a detail of these difficulties as 
* this letter may fall into the hands of the 
<c confederates, and may be published to the 
" nation, as several others full as insignificant 
" have already been, to no small detriment of 
fe this good man's affairs. I shall reserve them 
M for some future letter, or our evening's chat 
" in Queen Anne Street, or Langham. 

« I have heard of Lady S—h's flight. I 
n cannot say that I ever liked the match. It 
" is impossible to have the least connection 
" with Fox, either of a political or private 
€C nature without smarting for it; every thing 
€C he touches becomes putrid and prostitute. I 
* hope your brother will have grace to break 



94 

ix this cursed connexion, which has diverted 
f< such excellent parts from their true use, 
" blasted all the hopes which his real friends 
" and his country had a right to entertain of 
** him; that he will see, in its proper colours, 
" the odiousness of dependency and venality, 
" particularly in a man of fortune; and that 
" he may, by his future conduct, make an 
" ample recompence to the opulent county 
" which has chosen him for their hitherto-dis- 
" appointment.* 



" I have no doubt of Mr. Blake'sf doing 
" his duty. He is not only well-disposed birn- 
te self, b-t is in the hands of one who might 
" transform a Macaroni into a Cato. He 
" must be the devil himself, whom a young, 
* f beautiful English woman, with the senti- 



* Junius is very apt to compound the adverb as hitherto, 
disappointment is in his letter. 

« Well-directed labours.' , July 8, 1796. 

" Once-respected name." Jin. 30, 1771. 

« AU-but-convicted felon." Jan. 21, 1772, 

+ Mr. Blake was not created a baronet till Sept. 1772. 
The last dated letter in Junius, is January, 1772. 



95 

* ments of a Spartan matron, cannot lead in- 
'•' to the ways of political righteousness. If 
" women were like you, men could not pos- 
" sibly be such rascals. I have long lament- 
u ed the accursed prevailing notion that wo- 
" men ought to have detective educations. It 
" was the most cunning fiend in hell who first 
ee broached this doctrine; which, had it not 
" prevailed, the better part of the globe would 
** not have groaned in the wretched state of 

* slavery we at present see it. For God's sake, 
H Madam, have as many daughters as possible, 
" and make them as much like yourself as 
" possible, and some descendant of Catherine 
" IVPCauley may attribute the salvation of the 

-•** state to your progeny. 
I am, 

Dear Madam, 
With the highest esteem, 
Yours, &c. 

C. Lee.* 



For the sake of brevity,, I have left out the 
beginning., and some other parts of this letter; 
but the sentiments of the whole resemble those 
of Junius; and I think it may be proved from 



96 

the parts which are cited and distinguished by 
Italics, that many of the favourite words and 
phrases of Junius are to be traced in them 

Your understanding and the care you have 
taken to cultivate it, cuts me off from some 
of the most fruitful subjects to female corres- 
pondents ; the dress, intrigues, and diversions 
of the women of the several places we pass 
through: but on the other hand, it affords 
me, 8$c. 

Perhaps this is a mistake which is too com- 
mon to some of our best writers, to prove 
any thing. But as Junius has a similar one 
in his letter to the king, it may be considered 
rather as one of those mistakes which were 
more apt to escape the writer, than an error 
of the press. 

" * It is the misfortune of your life, and 
" originally the cause of every reproach and 



* It may be necessary to observe that in General Lee's 
posthumous publications there are as few grammatical er- 
rors as in Junius, though Junius's letters had the benefit 
of a revision from himself. But every person who has 
been guilty of authorship knows how difficult it is to pre- 
vent the errors of the press, even if he had avoided those 
of his pen. 



97 

* e distress which has attended your govern- 
<{ ment, that you have never been acquainted 
" with the language of truth, until you heard 
" it in the complaints of your people" 

Junius, Dec. 19, 1769. 

Junius hi his preface has a similar error. 

" While this censorial power is maintained, 
t( to speak in the words of a most ingenious 
(C foreigner, both minister, and magistrate is 
<c compelled in almost every instance, to choose 
" between his duty and his reputation*' 

Trampling on the rights. 

Violating her own sacred laws* 

Much spirit in the body of the people. 

Dictated, slavish, enslaving, prostituted, 
are frequently repeated phrases a;id words in 
Junius. 

And the following part of General Lee's 
letter ; 

* Tkat in some instances the laws have been scandalous* 
ly relaxed, and in others daringly viol it ed. 

June 12, 1769. 

Or what assurance will thpy give you, that when they 
have trampled upon their equals, they will submit to 
a superior. December 19, 1769. 



9S 

*- If God delights in seeing a virtuous man 
" (as Seneca supposes he does) struggling 
<e with adversities, he has a charming spec- 
" tacle in the King of Poland:" is so near- 
" \y verbatim to what Junius published four 
'' years afterwards iu oue of his letters to the 
" Duke of Grafton, that it is impossible tor 
" any reader to compare the two passages, 
" without suspecting that each passage was 
" written by the same writer. 

* * If it he true that a -virtuous man, strug- 
" ling with adversity, be a scene worthy of 
" the Gods, the glorious contention belwteu 
" you and the best of princes, deserves a cir- 
" cle equally attentive and respectable" 

Junius, June 22, 1771. 

Now admitting that two authors had been 
equally struck with one Latin passage, is it 

* The following is the passage in Seneca de Proyidentia. 

tt Fatrium habet I)eus adversus bonos viros animum, et 
illos fortiter amat : et operibus, inquit, doloribus ac dam. 
nis exagitentur, ut lerura colligaut robur. Langucnt per 
inertiam saginata: nee labore tantum sed mole et ipso 
sui onere deficiunt. Non fert ullum ictum illcesa felici- 
tns ut ubi assidua fuit cum incommodis suis rixa, callum 
per injurias ducit, nee ulli malo cfdit: sed etiam si ceci- 
derit, de genu pugnat. Mitaris tu ; si Deus ille bono. 



99 

probable that eacb autbor would have ren- 
dered it exactly in the same words into En- 
glish ? It is singular, indeed, if General Lee 
and Junius were different men, that both of 
them, while they were supposing and bewail- 
ing the ruin of their country, should not on- 
ly glance at the description which Seneca has 
given of Cato, but should have compressed so 
long a passage into so few words. Sir Roger 
l'Estrange has given a compressed translation 
of Seneca, which he calls An abstract of Se- 



mm amanfissimus, qui illos quam optimos esse atque ex- 
cellentissimos vult, fortunam illis cum qua exerceantur 
assignat? Ej»;o veio non miror, si quando impetum ca- 
piunt spectandi ma^nos viros colluct antes cum aliqua ca- 
lamitate. Nobis interdum voluptati est, si adolescens 
constants animi irruentem feram venabulo excepit, si 
leonis incursum inferitus pertulit: tantoque spectaculum 
est gratius, qnanfo id honestior fecit. Nou sunt ista, 
quae possunt deorum in se Tultum convertere sed puerilia, 
et humanae oblectamenta levitatis. Ecce spectaculum 
dignum, ad quod respiciat intentus operi suo Deus : ecce 
par Deo dignum, vir fortis cum mala fortuna compositus, 
utique si et provocavit. Non video, mquam, quid habeat 
in terris Jupiter pulchrius, si canvertere animum velit 
quam ut spectet Catonem jam partibus non semel fractis 
Stantem, nihilominus inter ruinas publicas rectum." 
o % 



100 

neca's Morah. This work has run through 
thirteen editions, and I quote as much of his 
tra slation of the Latin as will satisfy the 
reader that both General Lee and Junius trans- 
lated the passage from the Latin. " God 
*' loves us with a masculine love, and turns 
" us loose to injuries and indignilits : he takes 
' c delight to see a bpave and a good man 

" WRESTLING WITH EVIL FO rTLNE, and yet 

n keeping himself upon his legs, when the 
" whole world is dis>rd<red about him. And 
" are not we ourselves delighted to see a hold 
" fellow press with his lance upon a boar or 
" a lion ? And the constancy and resolution 
" of the action is the grace and dignity of 
" the spectacle/* L'Estrange's Seneca, cap. 
viii, p. 143, of thirteenth edition. 

In the same letter of Junius where the 
above cited passage occurs, is the following 
sentence: 

" Make haste, my Lord; another patent ap- 
*? plied in time, may keep the Cars in the fa- 
" mily — -If not, Burnham wood, I fear, must 
(f come to the Macaroni." This passage, 
con pared with the last part of Lee's letter to 
Laoy Blake, that her husband is the hands 
of a woman iclw might transform a Mac A- 



101 

roni into a Onto, is very curious. It tends to 
prove that Lee and Junius could not think 
of the ruin of their country without a corres- 
pondent idea of Cato — nor of Cato, without 
contrasting him with a Macaroni .* 

The next citation is from a letter to Lord 
Tbanet, from Warsaw,, and dated May the 4th, 
1767, containing many of the opinions, and 
much of the declamatory manner of Junius. 

" f I have greater reason every day to con- 
" gratulate my prudence in having left En- 
i{ gland: I am persuaded, had I stayed, I 
u should have brought myself into some cursed 
" scrape; even here, at so great a distance, I 
" am thrown into strange agitations of passion 
94 on the sight of every r;ewspaper. Heavenly 
" God ! is it possible we should be so far 
" suhk? to return solemn thanks for a mani- 
** festly corrupt dissipation of such enormous 
" revenues, and an impudent demand on the 

* The word Macaroni as here used arose from a club 
which was instituted by some of the most dressy tra>eL 
ed gentlemen about town ; every thing at that time which 
became fashionable, or foppish, was apt to acquire the 
additional title of Macaroni. See Grose's dictionary, 

+ Memoirs, page 312. 



102 

** public to repair this dissipation, is pushing 

* servility to its ultimatum. Those nations 
* f who have the least idea of liberty, as the 
" Austrians and Russians, laugh and hoot at 

* us. Compare, say they, the remonstrances 

* of the French parliaments with addresses of 
e< yours, and then dare to pride yourselves in 

* the superiority of British spirit over their 
ie neighbours. It is impossible to make the least 
ic reply to these charges, 1 choak with grief 
" and indignation. When I attempt to assure 
<e them, the body of the nation is still untaint- 
tc ed, that they have still sentiments of freedom, 
" they answer that such sentiments are of little 
" consequence, when courage is wanting to put 

* them in motion. 

<e Is not every of your most boasted laws 

* t ramp led upon or eluded? Is not perjury, 

* desolation and murder encouraged and re- 
" warded with the national money? Are net 
ff your magistrates, from the sole merit of be- 
<e ing declared enemies of the law, become fac- 
" tious partizans ? Is not the choice of your 
<f people in their representatives treated with 
" contempt and annulledi Are not )Our ci- 
cc tizens massacred in the public streets, and 

* in the arms of their household gods, by the- 



103 

c ' c military, and the military thanked for their 
ee friendly alertness?* 

" If these things are borne with by the peo- 
<s pie, who possess sentiments of liberty, we 
ce have lost the meaning of words. Such, my 
n dear lord, is the language of these people, 
" and it is fortunate for me, that they are ig- 
" norant of the state of our American politics. 
(c They can have no idea of our carrying our 
■" abominations so far, as to disfranchise three 
" millions of people of all the rights of men, 
<e for the gratification of the revenge of ablun- 
" dering knavish secretary, and a scoundrel 

* u When the constitution is openly invaded — when. 
ei the first original right of the people, from which all 
>** laws derive their authority is directly attacked, inferu 
" or grievances naturally lose their force, and are suffer. 
f ed to pass by without punishment or observation." 

Junius , Oct. 17, 1769. 

M The same house of commons who robbed the consti- 
** tuent body of their right of free election; who gave 
11 thanks for repeated murders, committed at home, and 
-* c for national infamy incurred abroad; who screened 
M Mansfield ; who imprisoned the magistrates of the me- 
4< tropolis, for asserting the subject's right to the pro- 
iC tection of the laws; who erased a judicial record, and 
iC ordered all proceedings in a criminal suit to be sus, 
-" pended: this very house," &c« Jutu Oct. 5 % 1771* 



104 

" attorney-general — an Hillsborough and a 
" Barnard."* 

Lee in his military conversation (page 111 
of his memoirs) sa*. s, 

" As to the army that served in Germany, 
u it is true they have not been so very grossly 
ee treated as the American. There were mo- 
tc ments when Lord Granby would not cede to 
C( our gracious secretary at war. There were 
" moments when, as our ingenious court terni- 
" ed it, he was obstinate and impracticable ; 
€C that is, there w T ere moments when he insisted 
" on some regard being paid to those who had 
ec deserved of their country; but these mo- 
ec ments unfortunately occured but too seldom. 



* K The same scandalous trafi&c, in which we hare 
" seen the privilege of parliament exerted or relaxed to 
u gratify the present humour, or to serve the immediate- 
" purpose of the crown, is introduced into the adminis- 
tration of justice. '* Junius, Jan. 21, 1772. 

u When the guards are called forth to murder their 
" fellow-subjects, it is not by the ostensible advice of 
u Lord Mansfield. That odious office, his prudence tells 
u him, is better left to such men as Gower and Wey* 
" mouth, Barrington and Grafton. Lord Hillsborough 
" wisely confines his firmness to the distant Americans." 

Junius, Oct. 5, 1771. 



105 

(< * *Iis facility and complacence to the wick* 
" eduess of the court, preponderated over his 
" natural love of justice. In short, the p i- 
" trojiagc of the army was left to a Barring? 
u ton, by whom valour, sense and integrity 

* must naturally be proscribed, as he must 
" suspect that no man can possess them without 
" being an enemy to their contraries, which are 
<* the undisputed attributes of his lordship " 

General Lee in his essay on the coup d'oeil 
( memoirs page 95) sa s, 

u There are very few military men who are 

* capable of drawing, from an historical fact, 
" such observations as these I have cited from 
" Machivael : the most consummate master in 
" the profession could do no more I am not 
ie at all surprised at it; a profound and well- 

* Junius in his note to his letter of March 3rd 1769, says, 
u The mistakes Lord of Granby in public co duct, 

4i did not arise either from want of sentiment, or want 
" of judgement ; but in general from the difficulty of say- 
#i iug NO to the bad people who surrounded him," 

See Junius on the Marquis of Granby and Lord Bar- 
rington under the signature of Corregglo p 473 v 2 and 
p. 107, vol. 3, under the Signature of Lucius. YYetiU'aU'A 
edition. 



106 

• digested study of history necessarily leads 
" us to the knowledge of an infinity of things, 
" which enables us to judge soundly and so- 
" lidly of all. The study of politics, o f which 
u history is the basis, is a powerful means of 
" perfecting our understanding and j udgement. 
" The political and military discourses of 
" *his author on the decades of Livy, are an 
" immortal work." 

General Lee here, as in many other passages, 
discovers the same taste that Junius has for 
political and classical pursuits, and for the 
writings of Machivael. 

The quotations which I have made from the 
memoirs of General Lee, are all taken from 
those of his letters and papers, \*hich were 
written between *?66 aud January 1768 — viz. 
one, two, and three years, before the publica- 
tion of Junius. Many passages equal in sen- 
timent and manner, and nearly in the words of 
Junius are to be met with in these memoirs, 
but I have selected those only which were 
written prior to Junius, and to General Lee's 
departure from this country. If the passages 
which are cited should not be satisfactory to 
the reader, I must console myself under the- 



10? 

confession of Mr. Almon* — " that men, and 
" sometimes great men, differ widely in their 
" opinions upon the talents of writers." But 
if I am not mistaken, whoever will take the 
trouble of comparing any part of the memoirs 
of General Lee, whether his letters to the 

Duke of , General Gage, or Bur- 

goyne, or his orders to the American army, will 
discover the same vigour of thought, and 
structure of sentences as in Junius: and that 
after having examined every part of the writings 
of General Lee, no parts of them will be found 
so much at variance with Junius, as Junius 
may be found at variance with himself, by com- 
paring his letters under that signature with 
those which Mr. Woodfall has now brought 
to notice under different signatures as additional 

letters of Junius. 
i 

* I cannot recall to my memory the number- 

fC less trifles I have written; — but I rely upon 

" the consciousness of my own integrity, and 

u defy him (Home Tooke) to fix any colour- 

€< -able charge of inconsistency upon me." 

Junius, Aug. 15, 1771. 

* Almon's Junius, p. 40. 
v 2. 



1GS 

The memoirs of General Lee discover, that 
when a child he was sent to Switzerland for 
his education, and that, by his own confession, 
his love of liberty commenced in that country.* 
These memoirs will also sufficiently evince that 
the independency of America was established 
by the cleverness of General Lee, who not on- 
ly with his pen, his declamations and discipline, 
animated the Americans, but allured the French 
to take part against the British nation. 

Of course he may be said to have had as 
great a share in bringing about the French re- 
volution a d all its consequences as any of his 
cotemporaries : and when it is considered that 
Calvin, Rousseau, and Neckei, were natives of 
Switzerland, and that General Lee and Gibbon 
received a very considerable part of their edu- 
cation in that country, the combination of 
these facts becomes very interesting to a specu- 
lative uiind.f 

* Memoirs, p. 62. 

•f It has been suppo*ed that Junius formed his c iyte 
upon a pamphlet, which -was published in Oliver Crom. 
Vreii'b time, — entitled Killing no Murdtr. But is Mon- 
tesquieu's spirit of laws forjned no inconsiderable part 
of a bttiss education - y perhaps tbt sententious brevity of 



Whoever will fake the trouble of reading 
the memoirs of General Lee, will discover that 
he never ought to have been brought to a 
court martial ; since his orders were to annoy 
the enemy as much as possible without risking 
any thing of great importance. 

But it is too visible that his talents excited 
a jealousy in Washington, especially as a strong 
party had formed in congress to raise Lee to 
the first command. The commander iu chief 
brought him to a court martial 
For disobedience of orders in not attacking 

the enemy on 28th June. 
For misbehaviour before the enemy on that 

day. 
For disrespect to the commander in chief : 

Of all which charges he was found guilty, 

that writer migfrt have had some share in forming the style 
of Junius. Gibbon confesses the effects that Montesquieu 
had upon his first publication, in the following words. 
"• The obscurity of many passages is often effected, bre 
44 vis esse lahoro. obsvuro Jig ; the desire of expressing 
•' perhaps a common idea, with sententious and oracular 
u brevity. Alas ! how fetal has been the imitation of 
" Montesquieu." (Gibbon's life, p 91.) 

Had bis politics inclined him to have written against 
•government, no person could have come so near to Junius 
as Gibbon in dignity j satire, brevity, and irony. 



110 

and suspended from any commission in th& 
American army for twelve months While he 
was thus disgraced,, and of course soured, and 
disappointed in the American character, he re- 
ceived a most insulting letter from one of the 
congress of the name of Wm. Henry Drayton. 
General Lee answered this letter, and Mr. 
Drayton wrote a second letter to which Gene- 
ral Lee replied. 

Whoever meditates on the situation of Ge- 
neral Lee at the time he was receiving these 
impertinent letters, will not think any severity 
of expression in his answers improperly applied. 

I shall transcribe them both — And when it 
is considered that the first letter was written in 
a few hours after the reception of Mr. Wm. 
Henry Drayton's letter, and how much more 
difficult a subject General Lee's was, than any 
on which Junius had to write, it is impossible 
not to be struck with the powers of Lee's mind. 
Junius never could have compressed into fewer 
words more argumentative, dignified, and con- 
temptous answers, than these two letters are to 
those of William Henry Drayton. 



Ill 

To Wm. HL Drayton, Esq.* 

" Philadelphia, Feb. 5th, 1779. 

Sir, 

rr I should have done myself the honour of 

* answering your letter yesterday, but was 

* prevented by a variety of business. If I 
" have violated any orders of the commander 
* ( in chief, to him, and the congress only, am 

* I responsible; but certaiuly am not amena- 
" ble to the tribunal of Mr. William Henry 
n Drayton. I shall therefore remain entirely 
u indifferent whether you are pleased to think 
" or dream, that I designedly threw myself 
" into the hands of the enemy, or whether I 

* was not taken by a concurrence of unfortu- 
" nate circumstances such as happen in the 
" course of all wars. The only remark I shall 

* make on your extraordinary requisition, that 
m I should clear myself on this point to you, 
" simply Mr. William Henry Drayton, whom 

* I consider but as a mere common member 
a of congress, is, that you pay a very ill com- 

* pliment to tne general. You must suppose 
** him either miserably deficient in understand- 
" ing, or in integrity as a servant of the pub- 

* Menaoirs ; p. 60. 



lis 

tc lie, when you suppose that he could suffer 
" a man for a single day to art as his second 
(! in command, whom he knows to he sruiltv 
" of such abominable treason. This insreiu- 
" ous supposition therefore is, in my opinion, 
(< a greater affront to the general than to mv- 
" self. 

" I am sincerely concerned that niy friend 
" Eustace should have degraded himself so far 
" as to enter into any discussion of this mat- 
" ter with Mr. William Henry Drayton; and 
" I shall reprimand him for not understanding 
" his own dignity better. 

" I shall now only take the trouble of add- 
" ing, that if you can reconcile your conduct 
t( in stepping out of the road (as I am in- 
" formed you did in your charge to the grand 
" j ur j) *° aggravate the calamities of an un- 
cc happy man, who had sacrificed every thing 
" in the cause of your country; and as he 
" then conceived to the rights of ma kind; 
" who had sacrificed an ample fortune, at least 
" an easy and independent fortune, the most 
" honourable connections, great military pre- 
" tensions, his friends and relations: I say, if 
" you can reconcile your stepping out of your 
cx road to aggravate the calamities of a mau 






113 

who had notoriously made these sacrifices, 
and who, at the very time you was display- 
ing your generous eloquence, had no less 
than five centinels on his person, and was 
suffering extremely in body and mind — If 
you can, I repeat, reconcile such a procedure 
to common humanity, common sense, or com- 
mon decency, you must be a more singular 
personage than the public at present con- 
sider you. 

" I am, Sir, 

" Your most obedient, 

" humble Servant, 

* C. Lee/' 



" Philadelphia, March 15, 1779. 
Sir, 

" As I have now settled all my affairs, and 

* as I am given to understand that you proba- 
" bly may soon set out for South Carolina, I 
" take the liberty of addressing this letter to 
u you, which is so close our correspondence 

* for ever. Until very lately, I was taught to 
" consider you only as a fantastic, pompous 
* s dramatis persona, a mere Malvolio, never 

Q 



114 

u to be spoke or thought of but for the sake 
" of laughter; ar:d when the humour for 
laughter subsided, never to be spoke or 
" thought of more. But I find I was mis- 
taken; I find that you are as malignant a 
e( scoundrel, as vou are universally allowed 
" to be a ridiculous and disgusting coxcomb. 
" You are pleased to say, that I am legally 
" disgraced; all that I shall reply is, that I 
" am able, confidently to pronounce, that eve- 
f ' ry man of rank in the army, every man on 
" the continent, who had read the proceedings 
" of the court martial (perhaps, indeed, I may 
" except Mr. Ptnn, of North Carolina, and 
" Dr. Scudder, of the Jerseys, with a few 
" others about their size in understanding)* is 
" of the opinion that the stigma is not on him 
" on whom the sentence was passed, but on 

• those who passed this absurd and preposte- 
" rous sentence; for, to be just, I do not be* 
" lieve you quite blockhead enough to think 
" the charge had a shadow of report ; and if, by 

* some wonderful metamorphosis, you should 

* Junius (vol. 3, p. 459, Woodfall's Junius ) speaking 
of Lord Barrington, has the same phrase. 
" And considering the size of his understanding." 



115 

* become an lowest man, you will confess lfc 

* As to the confirmation of this curious sen- 
* fence, I do not conceive myself at liberty 
" to mak^ any comments on it, as it is an 
" affair of congress, for which body I ever 
■" had, and ought to have, a profound respect. 
<c I o. ly lament that they are disgraced by so 
" foul a member as Mr. Wm. Henry Drayton. 
" * You teii me that the Americans are the 



* Junius often surprises the reader with the singular 
turn that he o}vcs to his adversary's argument — as when 
Sir William Draper says, that his half-pay was given 
to him by way of pension — Junius replies, " The half. 
" pa), both in Ireland and England, is appropriated 
** by parliament; and if it be given to persons who like 
•* you, are legally incapable of holding it, it is a breach 
" of law. It would have been more decent in you to 
" have called this dishonourable transaction by its true 
" name ; a job to accommodate two persons by particu- 
6i kr interest and management at the castle What sense 
*' mtuf government ha:e had of your services, when the 
41 rewards they have given you are only a disgrace to 
" you? 

When Mr. Home accuses Junius of coarse language, 
Junius replies, 

u If any coarse expressions have escaped me, I am 

** w ready to agre-e that they are unfit for Junius to make 

Q 2 



11<J 

" most merciful people on the face of the earth; 
" 1 think so too; and the strongest instance 
<( of it is, that they did not long ago hang 
" up you, arid every advocate for the stamp 
" act; and do not flatter yourself that the 
" present virtuous airs of patriotism you may 
rf &* ve yourself, and your hard-laboured let- 
" tcrs to the commissioners and the ki :g, will 
" ever wash awa\ the stain. If you think the 
" terms I make use of harsh or unmerited, my 
" friend Major Edwards is commissioned to 
" point out your remedy. 

Charles Lee." 



Mr. Woodfall has cited the passage hang 
up you and every advocate for the btamp act, 
to prove the different line of politics of Ge- 
neral Lee to Junius. But whoever was the 
writer of Junius, while he was supporting 
that fictitious character, certainly thought him 

" it se o/, but J see no reason to admit that they have been 
M improperly applied." Both these turns are alter the 
mauner of this, which General Lee has given to — You 
tell me thai the Americans are the most rnercijul people 
on the fact of the earth. 






117 

*rlf as much at liberty to disguise some of 
his private opinions as a man, as he had done 
when he wrote under the signature of Scotus. 
General Burgoyne in his letter to General 
Lee in 1775, says, " Among other support- 
re ers of British rights against American claims, 
<e I will not speak positively, but I firmly be- 
■* lieve, I may name the men of whose inte- 
" grity and judgement you have the highest 
et opinion, and whose friendship is nearest vour 
" heart ; I mean Lord Thanet, from whom 
* my aide-de-camp has a letter for you, with 
tc another from Sir Charles Davers." 

It would seem by this passage, that Lord 
Thanet and Sir C. Davers, were original sup- 
porters of Mr. Grenville's bill; which would 
account for Junius having justified that mea- 
sure, and that gentleman. But whether in any 
other respect Lord Thanet or Sir Charles Dave»s 
supported British rights against American 
claims, I have my doubts. In voting however 
with their friend Mr. Grenville, these gentlemen 
made themselves responsible for many of the 
consequences, in spite of the sophistry of Juli- 
us. And though in his letter toMr. Wilkes of 
l^ov. 1771, Junius has argued on the theory 



118 

of the laws of nations, yet in that letter he 
becomes as much of an American as General 
Lee in the following conclusion of the para- 
graph. 

" My American namesake is plainly a man 
" of abilities, though I think a little unrea- 
<c sonable when he insists upon more than a 
" surrender of the fact. I agree with him 
" that it is a hardship in the Americans to be 
" taxed by a British legislature ; but it is a 
• c hardship inseparable in theory from the con- 
cc dition of ail colonists, in which they have 
cc voluntarily placed themselves. You may 
" assure Dr. Lee, that to my heart and uu- 
ff derstanding, the names of American and 
" Englishman are synonymous: and that as to 
« any future taxation of America, I look up- 
" on it as near to iajpossible as the highest 
€< improbability can go." 

General Lee acted up to this opinion, by 
transplanting himself to America. 

General Lee died on the 2nd of October^ 
1782, and the last letter which he wrote to his 
n aiden sister, Mrs. Sidney Lee, of Chester, In 
this kingdom, ought to operate as a caution to 
ail those who dislike this country, or who have 



119 

ever indulged the hopes of rising out of the 
ashes of a revolutionary flame. 



My dear sister, 

(t The other day, by a kind act of Providence, 
¥ a letter of youis fell into inv hands, of so 
* ( late a date as 20th of March, and, what is 
t( more, it had the appearance of never having 
" been opened. You will better conceive, thau 
4C I can express, the pleasure which I received 
H from it; for I assure you, that my American 
* enthusiasm is, at piesent so far worn off, 
c< that the greatest satisfaction I can conceive, 
*' is to be informed of the health and welfare 
•' of my English frieiids, who, with all their 
" political sins, corruptions, and follies, still 
M possess more virtues, at least, as individuals, 
" than all the nations of the earth. As to the 
" Americans, though I once thought otherwise, 
" when their characters are impartially and 
ce minutely discussed, I am sure they will appear 
cc not only destitute of the personal virtues and 
u good qualities which reader those they tie- 
u scended from so estimable inihe eyes of other 
? nalious, such as truth, honesty, sincerity, and 



120 

(e good understanding; but I am much mis- 
" taken if the public qualities which you, at a 
" distance, suppose them endowed with, will 
" stand a scrutiny; but a scrutiny of this kind 
" in a letter, is not possible : all that I shall 
" say is, that the New England men ex- 
" copied, the rest of the Americans, though 
ft they fancy and call themselves republicans, 
" have not a single republican qualification or 
" idea. They have always a god of the 
" day, whose infallibility is not to be dispu- 
(C ted ; to him all people must bow down and 
" sing hosannas. 

" You are curious, my dear sister, on the 
<e subject of my finances, and are desirous to 
" know whether these people, to whom 1 have 
<c sacrificed every thing, have shown the same 
* e black ingratitude, with respect to my circum- 
f* stances, as they have in other matters I can 
ff assure you, then, that their actions are all 
" of a piece. 

" Was it not for the friendship of Mr. Rt. 
" Morris, and a fortunate purchase I made, 
" more by luck than cunning, I might have 
xc begged in the streets, but without much 
" chance of being relieved; not, but to be 
v just, there are many exceptions to the gene- 



m 

# ral character of the Americans, both in anJ 
sc out of the army, and, I think, the greater 
" number are of the latter class, men of some 

* honour, and who, I believe, have, from the 
" beginning, acted on principle ; and all thess 
<e I may, without vanity say have been my 
" friends and advocates. Among the worthies 
« of America, I reckon Mr. Robert Morris, 
" of Philadelphia; Richard Henry Lee, of 
« Virginia; Adams and Lovcl, and some others 
" of New England; the Morris's of New 
ct York, and Dr. Rush of Philadelphia. 

" In the army there are many worthy to be 
H mentioned, Generals Schygler, Miller, Sulli- 

* van, Mulhenburgh, Wayne, Weedon, Grier, 
r f Knox, &c. 

" I have been particularly fortunate in my 

# aide-de camps. All young men of the best 
" families, fortunes, and education, of this 
" continent; but above all, I should mention 
" young Colonel Harry Lee, who has signa- 
4f lized himself extremely in this accursed con- 
" test, the ruinous consequences of which to 
" the whole empire, I predicted to Lord Per- 
•* cy, and to my friend General Burgoyne.* 

* As a proof that Junius could not have been Gene- 
& 



1S2 

" To do the Americans justice, they certainly 
ee were not the aggressors; but the retrospect 

ral Lee, Mr. Woodfall has laid groat stress upon the 
friendship which General Lee professed in a letter of 
1775, to General Burgovne. Without adverting to the 
public declaration of Junius, that he was the sole de* 
pository of his own secret, and to his private confessi- 
on to Mr. AVoodfall that he had parties to his secret. 
or to many other inconsistencies, it will be found in 
the private letter to Mr. Woodfall (No. 15, page 201) 
that after stating the transaction of the Duke of Grafton 
with Mr. Hine, Col. Burgoyne, and Dr. Brook, Junius 
himself was unwilling to publish on this subject; for he 
says, " / think you might give these particulars in 
u your own way." The present Mr. Woodfall has 
added to this passage the following note. 

" The facts were given to the public by Junius him. 
" self in letter 34, vol. 2, p. 54, jind are indeed touch" 
iC ed upon more than once in his subsequent letters." 

It would seem by this private letter, that there had 
been a struggle of friendship for Burgoyne in Junius, 
with his hatred for the Duke of Grafton. But hatred 
for his grace, exceeded by some degrees, the original 
friendship of Junius for General Burgoyne. And that 
Junius would sacrifice an indifferent person, or even a 
common friend, for the sake of punishing the man whom 
he hated, may be proved bv his own private letter to 
Mr. Woodfall, No. 55, p. 251, where he saysj 
'• At any rate the broker should be run down. That 
u at least is due to the matter," 



123 

" now is of no use. In all civil contests the 
" people, in general, have not been the ag- 
<x pressors; they only wish to defend, not to 
<f encroach. The monarchs, or magnates ge- 
" nerally commence by their oppressions. Wit- 
" ness the disputes betwixt the patricians and 
" ph beans of Rome, and our wars in the time 
" of Charles the first: but the people in the 
41 contest, forget the principles on which they 
" set out, which ultimately brings destruction 
u on both parties: and this I extremely appre- 
" hend will be the case at present. I shall now 
" quit the labyrinth of politics, and return to 
u the subject of my own finances. Mr. Mure 
* has used me most cruelly and villainously; 
ct notwithstanding the vast sums he owes me, 
" he has protested a bill of three hundred 
" pounds, which has thrown me into unspeak- 
** able distress. He has affected a delicacy in 
u honouring the bills of a rebel; but if he 
" will cousult the proclamation of Sir Henry 
'•' Clinton, in the year 1778, he will find that 
" I am exempted from the apprehension of con- 
a fiscation, by the terms of this proclamation, 
" which declares, that no man, from the date 
f< hereof, who does not positively act in a civil 
e 2 



1«4 

is or military capacity, is subject to the corf- 
u fiscation of his property; but as I have reason 
u to think the man will avail himself of every 
" chicane, when money is in the case, I must 
u entreat that you will urge Sir Charles Bun- 
" bury and D&vers, to endeavour to influence 
u him, at least, to furnish Mr. Garton, for 
€C my use, with five, four, or at least, three 
" hundred pounds till the contest is over, and 
a the law, at carding to the terms of peace, tells 
" us what is t ) be done; but, at any rate, he 
" Mr. Mure, can have no claim, as an indivi- 
" dual, to my fortune : he must account for it 
" to somebody. 

w I am extremely concerned at the embarrass- 

" ment our cousin S gives you with re- 

" gard to the legacy, but it is the very error 
" of the moon ; she comes more near the earth 
u than she was wont to do, and makes men 
" mad. Is my worthiest friend Butler alive 
" and amor-gst jou? If he is, a thousand 
" blessings, in my name, on his head. 

" God Almighty, my dear sister, give you long 
rr life, ease, and spirits, is devoutly the wish of, 

" Your most aHectio^ate brother, 

" C. Lee" 

Virginia, Jane 22, 1782. 



1£> 

Since the memoirs of General Lee contain 
letters from him to his friends, which are 
marked with the phrases and indignation of Ju- 
nius, against the same men and measures, one, 
two, and three years prior to the publication of 
Junius : and since the images of Junius prove 
him to be a soldier, and the letters of the mo- 
ment in America, of General Lee, evince the 
same argumentative, lofty, and contemptuous 
spirit that pervades the letters of Junius; what 
should prevent the testimony of Judge Rodney 
from being admitted that General Lee was the 
writer of Junius ? 

If a daring spirit was thought necessary to 
the publication of Junius, where could a more 
daring spirit be found than that which General 
Lee discovered ? Could the age in which Ge- 
neral Lee flourished have produced a man who 
dared do so much as General Lee did, for 
what he then thought the rights of mankind ? 
He turned his back on nine hundred pounds a 
year in this country, and headed an army of 
rebels against his king, his country, and the> 
most honourable connexions and friends. 

Junius when not influenced by private re- 
sentment or private friendship, wrote the die* 
tates of his heart, and Lee acted up to them. 



126 

But it may be asked, why should the writer 
of Junius, so clever a man as he undoubted- 
ly was, allow himself to be decoyed into a con- 
fession that he was the author, when he had 
declared that the secret should perish with 

The answer to this is, that though Junius 
always wrote as if he thought himself more 
than mortal, as if he was only looking down 
upon mankind, yet he, with all his greatness, 
was but a human being. He could, no more 
than any other mortal, be certain that any 
resolution that he had made one year, would 
last him to the end of his existence in ibis 
world. And after having pledged himself to 
the public in the manner he had done, there 
was no other decent mode of allowing the 
secret to be revealed, but under the appear- 
ance of having suffered himself to be entrap* 
ed into the confession. 

But all explanation is set at defiance by 
the private confession to Mr. Woodfali, of 
Junius, that he had parties to bis secret, and 
b> his public declaration afterwards, that he 
was the sole depositary of his own secret. 

Previously to the testimony of Judge Rodney* 
of all the suspected persons, Burke, from the: 



127 

comprehensive powers of his mind, appeared to 
be best entitled to be considered as the writer 
of Junius. But though General Lee had so 
high an opinion of the talents of Mr. Burke, 
it is to be questioned whether any part of Mr. 
Burke's publications will prove him to be so 
close a reasoner as General Lee or Junius. 
Nor does the style* in general of Mr. Burke 
betray that epigrammatic conciseness which 
adds so mueh to the vivacitv of Junius. If 
Junius possessed equal imagination with Burke, 
he never allowed it to run away with him: for 
if he could not find a beautiful image, he rather 
chose to depend upon the force of his argument 
and the compression of his style, than to enlist 
into his service a disgusting figure Like an 
eagle on his prey, Junius pounces on his images 
and renews his flight 

Besides the greater differences of style between Mr. 
Burke and Junius, there are many lesser differences. 
Mr. Burke always uses the verb need as a declined verb. 
u There needs no principle of attachment." ( Burke's 
reflections, p. 1 30 ) Junius always uses the verb need 
like the verb must undeclined. " Your Majesty need 
" not." (Dec. 19th, 1769) Mr. Home uses invariably 
this verb as Mr. Burke does. " Truth needs no on.a- 
V merit." ( Home's letter to Junius. Aug. 1771. 



128 

Burke is too apt to be the reverse of all this. 
He often wanders wide from his argument, to 
lead us to the most degrading, or delightful 
figurative descriptions.* It would be needless 
and out of place to say more upon the writings 
of Mr. Burke. And perhaps it may be thought 
an equally unnecessary attempt to prove the 
wiiter of Junius. But surely it is not unwor- 
thy of the patriot, the philosopher, or the states- 
man, to ascertain the fate of Junius. Nay, 
even the character of General Lee, when it is 
considered that he effected the revolt of the 
Americans, and of course the revolutions which 
have since distracted the European world, can- 
not be useless to statesmen. 

They may learn from the life of General Lee, 
that it is neither just, safe, nor wise, to overlook 
»uch tried courage, and enterprising talents : and 
that no parliamentary interest should mortify 
from year to year such a man, by keeping him 
on half-pay, and giving superiour rank to men, 
who, in a military point of view, had never any 
pretensions to rank with General Lee. 

* Let any one examine only from p. 126 to 128, of 
Mr Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, 
and he will find the beauties and defects of Mr. Burke 
exemplified. 



129 



APPENDIX. 



Warsaw, April 29th, 1767. 
"ply dear colonel, 

I admire, very much, the subtilty of your 
reasoning, and the arguments you run after, to 
prove me in fault for the silence you have long 
observed, which, I confess, has furnished me 
often with subject for reflections. The receipt 
of your letter has given me so much pleasure, 
that I ought in gratitude to forget every un- 
easy thought that I have permitted to torm nt 
me whilst I was in expectation of it ; and there- 
fore shall proceed immediately to thank you 
for the intelligence it brings me, and the as- 
surances it renews of your affection aiid friend* 
ship. 

I should have been heartily glad to have 
heard, my dear colonel, that his majesty's re* 
^omaiendatioii had beeu more s uccessf ul ia pro* 



13tf 

curing you an establishment equal to jour me- 
rit and wishes; but am not at all surprised 
that you find the door shut against you by the 
person who has such unbounded credit; as 
you have ever too freely indulged a liberty of 
declaiming, which many infamous and invidi- 
ous people have not failed to inform him of. 
The principle on which you thus openly 
speak your mind, is honest and patriotic, but 
not politic; and as it will not succeed in 
changing men or times, common prudence- 
should teach us to hold our tongues, rather 
than to risque our own fortunes without any 
prospect of advantage to ourselves or neigh- 
bours. Excuse this scrap of advice, ray dear 
colonel, and place it to the vent of a heart 
entirely devoted to your interest. 

I remember my promise to inform you of 
the transactions of this place ; and had I re- 
ceived a line from you upon the road, should 
have endeavoured to find time during the diet, 
to have given you a sketch of the critical and 
unexpected affairs that agitated us ; it will be 
needless now, as the public papers and your 
other correspondents here have, doubtless, not 
failed to instruct you. The important affair 
of the dissidents was rudely and inscleuiij re- 



1S1 

fused ; and you cannot be ignorant that those 
gentlemen have formed two confederations in 
Poland and in Lithuania, supported by a Rus- 
sian army of thirty or forty thousand meu, 
and that we expect a diet extraordinary in the 
months of August or September, for terminating 
their demands, to the satisfaction of the powers 
who interest themselves in their behalf; and 
though it is impossible to say how it will end, 
yat the appearances at present are much in 
their favour, and we have all reason to think, 
that it will be conducted without any inter- 
ruption of the tranquillity of the republic. 

You must not imagine, that however im- 
portant this negociation is, that our great men 
cannot find time for other amusements and en- 
gagements. The object that engrosses our at- 
tention at this moment, is love, and the family 
of Clavereau, (you remember the French actor 
and his two daughters; Prince Gaspar Lubo- 
mirski marries the youngest daughter to day, 
and the eldest ran away, and married a musi- 
cian, two days ago, having received from R — 
a considerable sum, as a recompence for so 
infamous a part, and as serving only for a 
cloak to his views of getting her out of her 

3 2 



father's house. The father lias acted on fins* 
< eeasion, like a prince, and the ambassador 
like a comedian; the latter laughs, and is 
content with his dexterity, and his flatterers 
tell him, he is an habile negntfateur : but every 
prude it and impartial man must condemn a 
person of his rank and character — father of 
many children, and past the heat of youth — i 
for having committed such an extravagance. 

The chart du pais remains pretty much the 
same as when you left us ; the same friends 
ships a id the same quarrels. You have been 
the instrument of making Lind's fortune; M — > 
has given him the absolute direction and edu- 
cation of Mons Chambelkm's son, with a pen- 
sion for life, and lie is to travel v*ith him in a 
couple of years ; and I cannot but congratu- 
late both parties, for Lincl has great merit 
as a scholar, and a mau of principles and 
worth. 

I am much obliged to you, my dear colo* 
ixl, hr your off. rs ot service, and am con-. 
Mi.ceu, that \ou would seize any opportunity of 
lining usefi i to me; 1 aon't know in what 
uej you can do me a greater, than in Ulc 
? vrvation < >i ><> ,1 sentiments for n>e. Take. 
• re of joui heal i h, an4 i>u.-baiiu >. lIi you? 



133 

fori unc, which is sufficient to make you Imp- 
pv; and, in your hippiness, I shall always 
find a sincere satisfaction. Adieu, my dear 
colonel! J am, and ever shall be, to the end 
•f my life. 

Your affectionate friend and servant, 

Thomas Wroughtoh, 
To, Colonel Lee. 

(Lee's memoirs p. 202.) 



Savannah, Aug. 30th, 1776. 
$r, 

It will he necessary in addressing a lettetf 
of this nature, so abruptly to your excellency^ 
that I should inform you who the writer is. I 
have served as lieutenant-colonel in the English 
service, colonel in the Portuguese, afterward^ 
as aid du-camp to his Polish majesty, with the. 
rank of maj oi -general. Having purchased a 
small estate in America, I had determined to 
retire, for the remainder of n v days, to a peace- 
ful asylum: when the tyranny of the ministry^ 
and court of Grot Britain, forced this conti- 
nent to arms, lor the preset vaUon of their Ur 



134 

feerties, I was called, by the voice of the peo- 
ple, to the rank of second in command. I make 
no doubt of this letter's being kindly received 
by \our excellency, both in the character of a 
good Frenchman, and friend to humanity. The 
present conjuncture of affairs renders the inter* 
est of France and of this continent one and the 
same thing; e\ery observation drawn from his- 
tory must evince, that it was the exclusive 
commerce of these colonies, which enabled 
Great Britain to cope with France, gave to her 
a decided superiority in marine, and, of course, 
enabled her in the frequent wars betwixt the 
two nations to reduce her rival to the last ex- 
tremity. This was the case, so peculiarly in 
the last war, that had the British ministry per- 
severed, Heaven knows what would have been 
the fate of France. It follows, that if France 
can obtain the monopoh, or the greater part 
of this commerce, her opulence, strength, and 
prosperity, must grow to a prodigious height; 
and nothing can be more certain, than that if 
America is enabled to preserve the independence 
she has now declared, the greater part of this 
commerce, if not the monopoly, must fall to 
the share of France. 

The imaginary plans of conquest of Lewis 






the fourteenth, had they been realized, would 
not have established the power of that monarchy, 
on so solid and permanent a basis, as the sim- 
ple assistance, or raiher friendly intercourse* 
with this continent, will inevitably give. With- 
out injustice, or the colour of injustice, but, 
on the contrary, only assuming the patronage 
of the rights of ma kind, Fiance has now in 
her power to become not only the greatest, hut 
the most truly glorious monarchy which has 
appeared on the stage of the world. In tha 
first place, her possessions in the islands will 
be secured against all possibility of attack ; 
the royal revenues immensely increased, her 
people eased of their present burdens, an eter- 
nal incitement be presented to their industry, 
and the means of increase by the facility of 
providing sustenance for their families multipli- 
ed. In short, tfrer?> is no saying what degree 
of eminence, happiness, and glory, she may de- 
rive from the independence of this continent; 
Some visionary writers have indeed asserted, 
that could this country o ce shake oft her Eu- 
ropean trammels, it would soon become more 
formidable alone, from the virtue and energyy 
natural to a young people, than Great Britian 
\>ith her colj.de* u~.teu i u a state of deoenueoi 



186 

cy. But the men who have built such hypo* 
theses must be utter strangers to the manners^ 
genius, disposition, turn of mind, and circum- 
stances of the continent. Their disposition is 
manifestly to agriculture, and the simple life 
of shepherds. As long as vast tracts of land 
remain unoccupied, to which they can send co- 
lonies (if I may so express it) of their offspring 
they will never entertain a thought of marine 
or manufactures. Their ideas are solely con- 
fined to labour and to planting, for those nati- 
ons, who can, on the cheapest terms, furnish 
them with the necessary utensils for labouring 
and planting, and cloaths for their families; 
and till the whole vast extent of continent is 
fully stocked with people, they will never en- 
tertain another idea. This cannot be effected 
for ages ; and what then may happen, it is out 
of the line of politicians to lay any stress upon: 
most probably, they will be employed in wars 
amongst themselves, before they aim at foreign 
conquests. In short, the apprehension is too 
remote to rouse the jealousy of any reasonable 
citizen of a foreign state. On the other hand, 
it is worthy your excellency's attention, to con* 
sider what will be the consequences, should 
Great Britain succeed in the present contest; 



137 



America, it is true, will be wretched and en- 
slaved ; but a number of slaves may compose a 
formidable army and fleet. The proxim.ty of 
situation, with so great a force, entirely at the 
disposal of Great Britain/ wU put it in her 
power to take possession of your islands on the 
fi,st rupture. Without pretending to the spi- 
rit of prophesy, such, I can assert, will be the 
event ot the next war; upon the whole 1 
mU st repeat, that it is for the interest, as well 
as glory of France, to furnish us wrth every 
means of supporting our liberties, to effect 
W hich, we only demand a constant systematic 
supply of the necessaries of war. We do not 
require any aid of men, we have numbers, and, 
I believe, courage sufficient to carry us tri- 
umphantly through the struggle. We require 
small arms, powder, field-pieces, woollen and 
linen to cloath our troops; also drugs, particu- 
larly bark ; in return for which, every necessary 
provision for your islands may be expected, as 
rice, corn, lumber, &c. If, indeed, ,ou could 
spare us a few able engineers, and artillery offi- 
cers, they may depend upon an honourable re- 
ception and comfortable establishment. 1 he 
Sieur de la Plain, one of your countrymen, now 
engaged in the cause of the United States of 



138 

America will have the honour of delivering this 
letter to vour excellency. I have no doubt ol his 
being received with that politeness, and kind- 
ness, to be expected from a gentleman ot )our 
rank and character. 

I am, with the highest respect, 
Your excellence's 

most obedient servant, 
Cha .us Lee, 
To, His excellency, 
The goveriioi at Cape Francois. 



FINIS. 



ERRATA. 



Page 32. 1. 96. Jor Ciceronionus read Ciccronianus 

46 1. 15. for laying read lying 

50 I. 10. jor bel'eve read live 

56 1. 5. jor h^r cubs now ? readher cub's nose ? 

73 1. 3. Jor 1776 read 1766 

S3. 1. 17. after to add the 

105 1. 2 of the note, for Lord of read of Lord 

109. 1. 4. of the note. Jor eltected read ahected. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 661 515 1 



5»vs; 






